is an implication that Immigration is somehow anti-Bermudian. Yet if you talk to businessmen who are seeking work permits, they will tell you that Immigration is anti-business and strangling the economy by refusing work permits.

It seems to us that there are two simple truths involved. The UBP Government likes to get elected and the fastest way to lose at the polls would be to deprive qualified Bermudians of jobs. The second fastest way to lose at the polls would be to insist on employers hiring Bermudians who demand jobs they cannot successfully perform.

We have a protectionist immigration policy and Bermudians have a right to be protected but protectionist policies encourage people to think they have a right to jobs for which they are unsuited or ill-qualified. It is not unusual to have people demand jobs on the ground that they are Bermudian rather than on the ground that they are qualified. The immigration policy also encourages Bermudians to think that they have a right to a place at the top without any hard work at the bottom.

It is far too much trouble and far too expensive these days for any business to look overseas for any but the most necessary people. In any case, it is simply easier and more comfortable and more convenient to employ Bermudians in terms of knowing your employee and orientation of the employee and just in terms of knowing that a Bermudian is at home whereas a non-Bermudian may or may not settle into Bermuda and may well object to being expat bashed. It is a fallacy that "everyone'' is panting to live in Bermuda because not everyone who arrives here likes our brand of island living, no matter how much we praise it. None of this is to knock Bermudians but we must realise that while we all want the best for Bermudians, especially in these hard times, we also have to run a sophisticated and demanding economic structure in this Country.

It is that structure which has made Bermuda the best of the islands and without which we would all be poorer.

Over the years expat bashing has become an unpleasant and unhealthy and counter-productive national sport. "It's the expats' fault'' has become a debilitating Bermudian excuse for many of our own failures. Bermudians too often deny their own shortcomings or their own failures by saying that an expat got in the way. They then go one step further and blame Immigration for allowing in the expat in the first place.

Very few of the non-Bermudians working here are unnecessary. They were brought here to fill jobs Bermudians could not or would not do and more and more in recent years these have become jobs which Bermudians shun at the bottom of the scale.

Immigration is caught in the middle of all this. It has to balance the needs and aspirations of Bermudians and the legitimate claim to jobs by Bermudians against the need to keep us all working by keeping Bermuda as a whole well staffed. If the business of Bermuda breaks down because it is not properly staffed then everyone will suffer and we will all have something to complain about.

Are there people with legitimate complaints? Of course there are, because no system anywhere is perfect but in Bermuda unlike bigger places they have little trouble getting their complaints heard. However, by and large, we think Immigration does a pretty good job of balancing the needs of Bermuda as a whole against the needs and aspirations of individual Bermudians.