There is an interesting parallel to what is happening in Barbados regarding illegal immigrant labour which is currently unravelling in the USA. There is a report just released that tens of thousands of jobs to be created by Obama’s stimulus package will go to illegal aliens.
“Studies by two conservative think tanks estimate immigrants in the United States illegally could take 300,000 construction jobs, or 15% of the 2 million jobs that new taxpayer-financed projects are predicted to create – read full report“
It is interesting to note that this ridiculous state of affairs is being blamed on “failing to require that employers certify legal immigration status of workers before hiring by using a Department of Homeland Security program called E-Verify. The program allows employers to check the validity of Social Security numbers provided by new hires. It is available to employers on a voluntary basis.”
The BU family has been asking for months why there has been no visible attempt to implement laws which would penalize employers in Barbados who hire illegal immigrants. To sensible Barbadians who have been expressing concern about the unbridled influx of immigrant labour in recent years; commonsense suggests that waving a penalty at local employers who have been brazenly exploiting our lose immigration policy would have been good response to stem the influx.
In booming economic times which Barbados would have experience in the last decade; the economy easily tolerated the inefficient and ignorant immigration policy of the former administration. As the economy of Barbados begin to stall and unemployment indicator moves closer to double digits the time has come to get serious about illegal immigrants in Barbados.
The Prime Minister is on record promising that an underclass of people will not be allowed to take root in Barbados. We shall see.
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