"Spotlight on 'reality' of migrant workers' lives in Jersey"

…Several Deputies spoke to the JEP following the release of a Jersey Community Relations Trust report, which highlighted that those living in the Island for less than five years were particularly vulnerable to poverty due to a lack of housing qualifications and restricted access to benefits...

Migrant workers are often ineligible for income support payments due to the five-year residency requirement…[The report] highlighted high accommodation costs and poor job security as issues faced by seasonal tourism workers, while seasonal agricultural workers were ‘often required to live in substandard accommodation with multiple occupancy’...

The report points to the fact that the Island’s economy relies on seasonal workers and new migrants, but they are some of the Island’s poorest families. They are more vulnerable to employers and, often, their jobs are less stable…

[Deputy Beatriz Porée…said] ‘Workers often feel that Jersey does not have a mechanism in place to support them when there are employment disputes between them and employers…’

The report points to a lack of research into lower- to middle-income migrants, which means that there is a lack of understanding of ‘where the most significant and potentially harmful inequalities may exist’…