As someone who has employed many staff I can speak from experience.

Even eliminating the ‘employ a Caymanian first obligation’ why would an employer want to go to all the additional hassle of work-permit fees, lodgings, application form filling, etc. when he can avoid all this and employ a Caymanian?

So I am baffled why it would seem employers try every means in and out of the book to employ an expatriate when there is a Caymanian qualified to fill the position.

I can fully understand the frustrations surrounding out of work Caymanians who genuinely want to find a secure job.

There is ample proof now of many employers not complying with the rules as some of the advertisements for jobs show. If it is nonsense to me it should equally be nonsense to the Immigration Board members too.

I have seen the most menial jobs advertised insisting on almost University degree qualifications at small salaries. In a CNS story recently the media house pointed to real estate offices seeking clerks who can speak Russian and Mandarin!

It is not just here that countries seem to want ot employ foreign workers over locals. Even in Singapore!

In an article on the Transitioning website under the title “Eight Reasons Why Foreign Workers Are Preferred Over Local Ones” it relates how the Singapore government eased their regulations on the hiring of foreign workers over 10 years ago “there was much cheer and gaiety”. That is until the financial crisis hit in 2007.

The article continues:

“Most businesses can only have a foreign worker quota of 25% of the company’s total workforce. However, companies in the marine or construction sectors can have a higher quota due to their industry type as Singaporeans tend to shy away from such menial work.

“However, we have heard by now how the local companies work their way around the foreign worker quota system by artificially implanting local workers in their company. They are merely phantom workers, even paid CPF monies in their account and are used as a headcount so that more foreign workers can be employed. Thus, in some restaurants, it is not surprising to see many foreigners working with no local workers in sight.”

Doesn’t this all sound so familiar?

The article then lists the 8 reasons why local bosses will always hire foreign imports over our own locally-bred PMETs”.

1. Cost
2. Better worker
3. Foreign connections
4. Scams and schemes
5. Companies with foreigners seem hip
6. Foreigner – More Than Just A Worker (Explanation: “We all know by now that the huge influx of foreigner workers is a huge national plot by the government to artificially inflate the dwindling population of our country. The intended country’s target is 6.5 million population. One in three of our population eventually will be a foreigner.

Businesses from government linked companies (GLC) to small and medium companies (SME) have no choice but to compliant. I am sure that big companies have a certain foreigner quota to fill even at the expense of locals losing their jobs.”)

The other 2 do not apply here even remotely so I have not listed them.

The conclusion to the article is worth noting:

“The government has promised to slow down the intake of foreign workers in the near future to appease a furious local population. However, the more than one million foreigners already in our midst has robbed the locals of much space and employment. Many are still jobless or under-employed. It may not take long before we witness incidents of violence against foreign workers who are seem as snatchers of what that are rightfully ours”.

To read the whole article go to: http://www.transitioning.org/2012/02/16/eight-reasons-why-foreign-workers-are-preferred-over-local-ones/

In Canada recently their ‘Temporary Foreign Worker’ programme came under scrutiny claims Royal Bank of Canada was replacing Canadian employees with workers contracted from overseas. The ensuing furor was enough to prompt a public apology from RBC.

However, even after all the above I still find it baffling why employers fight to employ expats if there is a Caymanian qualified or can even be trained and willing to do do to fill the job vacancy.