Chamber: Migration decisions should wait until after Brexit

Monday 25 June 2018

No immigration policy decisions should be made before Brexit takes full effect, the President of Jersey's main business lobby group has said.

Eliot Lincoln, President of the Jersey Chamber of Commerce, made the comments after it was revealed last week that Jersey's population had hit 105,500 - 1,300 up from last year.

The official population numbers, which came following a review by Statistics Jersey, also showed that the number of 'skilled' workers entering the island had doubled between 2016 and 2017, while those simply on registered permissions, who often work in the hospitality and agricultural industries, had fallen.

While the previous Council of Ministers made numerous pledges to tackle the island's rising population during their term, a 'final' Migration Policy was only published two months before they left the Chamber. The policy, which proposes criminal record checks and photographic registration cards in order to control levels of migration into the island, will now face a States vote in September.

But the Chamber of Commerce are now calling for that vote to be held off. Following the publication of the most recent migration figures, the lobby group, who have for many years stated that migration policies must be balanced with the demands of businesses struggling with a lack of appropriately qualified staff, have suggested avoiding any “medium to long term policy decisions” until “we have a clearer view of Brexit."

Pictured: The long-awaited Migration Policy suffered several false starts in 2017.

Mr Lincoln told Express: “It is clear that in the short term we need more people to work in our local businesses, but we do not believe government should be making medium to long term policy decisions on population before we have a clearer view of Brexit and how this will affect us.”

The latest Population figures for 2017, which were released by Statistics Jersey last week, revealed that Jersey’s population has increased by 1,300 over the last year, 11,500 over the last decade and that the number of skilled workers has doubled since 2016.

Commenting on the latest figures, Mr Lincoln said that it is important to see the nuance behind these figures: “Our economy overall is running hot right now, so in some areas our inward migration is meeting needs, in other sectors, with high employment figures and the lowest ever unemployment figures, there are many job vacancies particularly in the retail, hospitality and agriculture sectors, so it is a complex picture that you cannot generalise over.”

Jersey's population increased by 1,300 during 2017. 1,200 of this increase was due to net inward migration and 100 was natural growth - full report here: https://t.co/iUZRcp8UbK pic.twitter.com/n2oW14yfZP

— Statistics Jersey (@JsyStats) June 22, 2018

According to Mr Lincoln, the key is productivity rather than focusing on migration figures alone. He said: “The Jersey Chamber of Commerce believes that greater work on increasing productivity across Jersey is certainly something we should give greater focus and thought. We are bringing together key individuals from across industry and government to discuss this in the next few weeks. 

“Clearly business must work smarter to deliver without causing major increases to our workforce and that means going in search of improved productivity – doing more with the same or even less people.”

Jersey’s increasing population figures starkly contrast with those of Guernsey, which are projected to fall below 60,000 by the year 2065. Mr Lincoln said that a growing population is “preferable” to a flatlining one. 

Pictured: Jersey's resident population has increased by 11,500 people over the last decade (Statistics Jersey).

He said: “One must look at Guernsey to see how their five year permits, may have been a significant factor in causing their population numbers to drop and that is a concern for any island population and its economy long term. Whereas here we have the reverse. I think that the challenges of growing population are preferable to those of a shrinking or stagnant population.

“Four year work permits may work for some sectors but may not for others and working with the specific industries will be crucial to identify this first and the work the Jersey Chamber of Commerce is doing on this will be important to those Government decisions.”