Dear Sir,

The quietly thoughtful article by Sir John Swan entitled “Is the Island open for business or not” on November 5 makes the critically important point that “opening up our economy makes us more competitive, more flexible and with a wider menu of services for consumers”, and has the result of making us better off.

As he clearly states, worrying about non-Bermudians stealing our lunch is a mug’s game because the objective is about growing our economic pie — or, put more formally, to stimulate economic growth.

A significant way that objective can be realised is by opening our economy not only to foreign firms, but by accepting a greater number of highly skilled expatriates.

For years now, we have been stuck with retrograde thinking on “expats”, convinced that when they do well, it is at the expense of Bermudians. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Most immigrants to Bermuda bring with them thousands of dollars in human capital. Think of how much it costs to educate and train a chartered accountant, an actuary, or an engineer.

In addition, many of them are networkers in international business who can bring together such essentials as ideas, people, products and financing from almost everywhere in the world.

On too many occasions in the past, our immigration policy somehow managed to treat such people as lepers and made it clear that they were unwelcome. The result was a massive loss of Bermudian jobs.

It is the ultimate in financial stupidity for the Bermuda Tourism Authority to spend huge sums to attract to our shores foreign tourists for a few days, but we then tell foreign guest workers, who stay for years and create opportunities for Bermudians, that they are not wanted.

Should we not change our style as Sir John suggests, and use our brains instead of our xenophobic instincts, so that good sense triumphs over political ignorance?

ROBERT STEWART