 |
|
|
 | | |  |
A state of isolation |
 |
Jersey airport |
This has proved to be a very tight control on the island’s population, and it must be stressed that these regulations are mainly forms of protection against incomers from the UK rather than political and economic refugees from the Developing World. However, it is the exceptions to these rules that provide a more revealing glimpse of Jersey’s socio-economic status.
The first exception was provided to help ‘essential employees’, and stipulates that rental accommodation should be made available for workers who fill positions that can’t be filled from the island’s resident population. Indeed firms are required to apply for a license to fill a vacancy with someone who has been resident on the island for less than five years.
This keeps unemployment very low, and also keeps a close check on the amount of immigrant workers on the island. However, these licenses are often liberally dispensed to certain industries, with blanket licenses often granted to those employers in agriculture and the all-important tourist industry, who would struggle to find residents to fill these relatively low-paid positions. Hotel worker wages would not buy you a house on Jersey.
The demographic result of this policy throughout the latter part of the 20th Century has been seasonal influxes of low-wage workers, particularly from Portugal, who now form the largest group of incomers from outside the British Isles. Indeed, according to the 1991 Census, this group constituted 4% of the island’s population, rising to 6% by the time of the 2001 Census.
Your comments
| |
 Print this page |
|
Archive
Look back into the past using the Legacies' archives. Find nearly 200 tales from around the country in our collection.
Read more > |
| | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external Web sites. |
| | | |
| | |
| |
|
