Dems question link between immigration reform, job shortages

A Democratic Labour Party spokesman has challenged lawmakers to justify how proposed immigration and citizenship reforms would directly address labour shortages and demographic decline, arguing that the measures risk prioritising accelerated citizenship pathways over targeted labour market solutions.

DLP shadow legal affairs minister Corey Greenidge told Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on economic and productive sectors examining the Immigration and Barbados Citizenship Bill, that while the government had identified legitimate concerns, it had failed to establish a clear link between the problems and the solutions being proposed.

“If we accept that Barbados faces legitimate concerns with respect to its demographics, our concern is that the solutions identified in these new bills do not actually address the problems,” Greenidge told the committee.

“The issue is whether the government has demonstrated that accelerated access to citizenship is the appropriate response to meet the challenges. In our respectful view, they have not made that case.”

Greenidge acknowledged that Barbados faces demographic decline, labour shortages and related threats to productivity, investment and economic growth. But he questioned whether shortened pathways to permanent residency and citizenship would improve labour force participation or productivity.

“We’ve tried to find evidence that this shortened pathway to citizenship would increase the labour force, increase labour force participation and improve productivity, and we have not been able to find such evidence.”

He argued that the labour market picture was more complex than simple worker shortages, pointing to concerns about graduate underemployment and declining workforce participation among some young Barbadians.

“There are many young people, mainly young men, also young women, who are just not participating in the labour force anymore and not looking for work.”

He also noted that Attorney General Wilfred Abrahams had acknowledged that “not all Barbadians who want work can find work”, suggesting the labour market challenges were multifaceted.

“If we accept that there is a multi-layered approach to the labour force and the issues that Barbados is facing, the question I want to pose to this committee is why is citizenship reform being offered as the solution?” 

Greenidge pointed to international examples, including Canada and Australia, where governments tackled labour shortages through targeted migration programmes linked directly to specific sectors rather than altering citizenship requirements.

“In each case, the government sought to solve labour market problems through labour market policies specifically designed to tackle that problem and did not, in effect, change its citizenship protocols.”

He further argued that citizenship should not be treated primarily as an economic incentive.

“Citizenship of Barbados is not simply an economic incentive. Citizenship is an established permanent legal, constitutional and political relationship between an individual and the state.”

The attorney also expressed concern about provisions he believes create an expedited pathway to citizenship. He highlighted proposed residency requirements of six months within a two-year period for CARICOM nationals and nine months within a three-year period for non-CARICOM nationals.

According to Greenidge, the points-based permanent residency system is heavily weighted towards financial contributions, with investments of $5 million accounting for more than half of the points required.

“That means permanent residency is now directly tied to financial contribution in Barbados,” he said, arguing that while the proposal is not a citizenship-by-investment programme, it links a shortened citizenship pathway to financial resources.

Committee Chairman Dwight Sutherland MP pushed back against concerns that the process would be rushed, noting that due diligence can be completed effectively within relatively short timeframes.

“With technology and what we have before us in the world, two years to do due diligence is by no means a short period. It’s a very long period,” Sutherland said.

He added that successive administrations had previously conducted due diligence on individuals seeking to establish businesses or practise in Barbados in as little as three to six months.

“This is not a first,” Sutherland said. “We’ve seen a number of incidents in this country where persons have been given the green light to practise in this country and due diligence was done within less than six months.”

(SB)