The following is a response by Shadow Minister of Workforce Development Rolfe Commissiong to employment expert Doug Soares’ recent Rotary Club speech on why some Bermudians struggle to compete for jobs in our economy

Firstly, Mr. Soares needs to be commended for his honesty in acknowledging that “racial injustice is in large part, the cause of the educational underachievement of many Bermudians”. What he apparently fails to understand however is that with respect to black Bermudians, much of their suspicion and resistance to any moves to relax the status grant regime (or grant significant numbers of additional PRC’s) stems from the fact for much of the latter part of the 20th Century, particularly between the 1950-60’s, up until the late 1980s, when a moratorium was imposed on the granting of status, immigration policy in this regard was a key tool of racial oppression, utilised to marginalise the black majority in the country.

And this occurred during a period when tourism was largely the only game in town and International Business was in its embryonic stage — at best. Walton Brown in his book, “Bermuda and the Struggle for Reform”, chronicles how approximately 6000 largely white Anglo migrants (British, Canadians and whites from other colonies) migrated to Bermuda during the 1960s alone.

The aim was two fold: Firstly, to stymie the newly emerging black majority’s move to black majority rule by way of the newly installed more democratic franchise; and secondly to ensure that Bermuda, unlike the countries in the Caribbean would not achieve Independence during this period.

But another consequence of this was that those largely white migrants needed jobs and were given preferential treatment in terms of hiring and/or promotion in Bermuda’s private sector, then largely owned by Bermuda’s white elite at the expense of — in many cases — qualified Black Bermudians. This also goes to the root of the largely bifurcated employment sector in Bermuda even today, with blacks still dominating the public sector, such as in the civil service; while whites continue to dominate the private sector economy.

The results of that de facto immigration policy, a form of white affirmative action, have been profound with over half of persons deemed white Bermudians today being persons of foreign birth. This is also why the intention by Minister Fahy to legislate the granting of status to those born in Bermuda as outlined in the recent “Throne Speech”, is viewed as a “red line” that must not be crossed by a majority of black Bermudians over the age of 40, to whom this policy initiative must seem like déjà vu.

But we too in the Progressive Labour Party recognise that we have a major deficit with respect to education and workforce development which needs to be addressed. Certainly, in this regard, we are happy that the government to some degree has carried on with policy reforms that were put in place by the previous PLP governments(s).

The Workforce Development department stands as testimony to that as does the government’s commitment to “Career Pathways”, which emanated out of the Mincy study on our young black males. Their decision to expand it beyond the high school level to the public middle schools needs to be supported.

Mr. Soares would do well to, as would most Bermudians to take a look at our “Response to the Throne Speech”, which outlines our commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) learning for our young people, which we believe can be a game changer for our economy over the next decade if a commitment is made now. We believe that this, plus programmes such as a Bermudianized “Job Corps” programme would greatly improve our 21st Century competitive profile in the context of the global economy.

I am also intrigued by Mr. Soares call for a national strategic target to be adopted to increase the number of college/university graduates in Bermuda. I too agree that the percentage of Bermudians who hold degrees relative to the size of our workforce, from a competitive standpoint, is too low. His target of 25 percent from a current level of 19 percent, would not be unreasonable and is worthy of support.