Archive for December, 2009

Faces of tourism

I was in a very popular seaside bar on the other afternoon. I was served by a very pleasant young lady who spoke excellent English even though it was obviously not her first language. She told me that she was from Latvia and had only been on the island for two weeks.

This made me wonder how she had managed to get a work permit when there are a number of unemployed Caymanians perfectly capable of performing the unskilled and less than onerous duties that she has. Now that I come to think about it, I realise that every bar worker I have ever come across here, and there have been quite a few, has been an expat. They are American, Canadian, South African, Australian etc.

There is a similar situation in restaurants. I have never been served by a waiter or waitress who is not an expat. Austrians seem to dominate here, although there are many other Europeans. Never Caymanians.

Why are there no Caymanians?

This is an island that relies heavily on tourism and yet young Caymanians are not working in that industry. Certainly, working as a bartender or a waiter means starting at the bottom but there is experience to be gained that could be of benefit elsewhere and there is also the possibility of promotion. It must be a better prospect than unemployment.

I was talking to a restaurant owner recently about why he had no Caymanian staff. His response was interesting, instructive and depressing. He told me that he advertised a position and (as a long time resident and a status holder who is concerned about rising local unemployment levels) stipulated that only Caymanians should apply.

He received three applications; one from a young man and from two women whose ages ranged from 18 – 21. He interviewed them all. Then he made a difficult decision, as all three applicants were suitable. Later he phoned the successful candidate and told him that he could start the next day. The Caymanian applicant declined the offer. The reason, he told the restaurateur, was that he had not realised what the job involved when he applied and he did not want to work on Friday and Saturday evenings. That was when he went out with his friends. The other two gave the same response for the same reason when called to be offered the job.

Why they applied for the job in the first place is a question that I don’t have the answer to. Didn’t they realise that working in a restaurant was not a Monday to Friday, nine to five job? The restaurant owner has hired a Spaniard.

I am not going to attempt to draw any conclusions from this but I do find it ominous and deeply depressing.

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What’s in a name?

It’s confusing when a word means one thing in one context and something else in another.  “Caymanian” and “expat” are two such words that we use every day. Who and what is a Caymanian?  It can mean a native ethnic Caymanian, or someone born here, or someone who used to live here a hundred years ago. 

Sometimes it covers all legal Caymanians, including “paper” Caymanians.  Sometimes it means a Cayman Islands passport-holder. 

There are several legal categories of Caymanians, and they don’t all have access to the same civil rights.  That’s an issue not addressed by our new Constitution, by the way.  How many classes of citizenship will the FCO allow in these Islands?

Some overseas Caymanians have a “right of return” by virtue of their ancestry.  In order to claim their birthright they have to settle here.  Not all Islanders approve of this loophole.  When you hear a Cayman-born Bodden or Ebanks spoken of as “not a real Caymanian”, it usually means he or she was born and/or raised somewhere else.

Recently, Britain granted all Caymanians a similar right of “return” to Britain – based on the romantic fiction that it is our ancestral home, since we are all subjects of the Queen.  Cayman Islanders can no longer claim they have nowhere to run to if Cayman collapses into poverty.

Who or what is an “expat” locally?  Largely, it depends on the user and his context.  Native Caymanians who say “these expats taking jobs from Caymanians” mean skilled workers, usually from North America or Europe.  They certainly don’t mean domestic helpers.  “These expats clogging up the infrastructure” usually means Jamaicans or Latinos doing less-skilled work – and, recently, Filipinos and Indians as well.

Interestingly, Caymanians never use “expats” to refer to their own expat ancestors.  Perhaps it is too insulting a term in their ordinary usage. In the mouths of expats themselves, “expats” means all transient migrants and long-term immigrants currently living here. 

Most of us take it personally when any expat nationality is disrespected by our local authorities.  Strangely, very few native Caymanians seem to be aware of this feeling of solidarity.  There is a sort of freemasonry of the victims of immigration injustices. 

Sadly, it’s always “us” and “them” on both sides of the great divide.  Even the longest of long-term immigrants only ever say “we Caymanians” as a rueful joke. 

It’s hard for first-generation immigrants to feel Caymanian when we aren’t equal before the law.  Relatively few of us can vote, and virtually none of us can run for elective office.  Vassel Johnson did it once – but I was present at a public meeting where one of his native-born opponents ended a tirade against him with the muttered words, “Get back to India!”  Yes, indeed.

It’s extremely rare for expats – no matter how capable and committed – to be appointed to politically sensitive boards and committees.  How stupid it is for the political establishment to stubbornly insist that nobody outside the tiny native gene-pool is trustworthy.  Where is the sense in refusing to utilise the experience and expertise of newcomers?

A word that a great many native Caymanians don’t like using among themselves is “immigrant”.  An immigrant is a resident who has an emotional stake in his community – and, if he can afford it, a financial stake.  He wants to belong and to contribute to his new home.  As such, he is anathema to the native Caymanians’ political leaders.  If Cayman is to avoid economic catastrophe, this attitude had better change soon. 

The word “expat” ought to be limited in its usage to transients, sojourners, birds of passage – people who don’t want to put down roots and will happily move on when they feel ready to go.  There is no disrespect in my saying this.  I was a transient in half a dozen places before I came to Cayman; indeed, I came here as a transient, as so many others have done.

Even transients bring skills that are useful and needed.  Many of them are glad to help in areas that interest them, though they don’t always receive due credit for it.

It’s a strange and rather sad society that doesn’t want transients to ever identify their interests with their hosts’; and it’s a cold-blooded one that doesn’t welcome the prospect of transient migrants becoming long-term immigrants.

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