Cayman’s Minister for Caymanian Employment and Immigration has accused employers of designing jobs to fit work-permit holders rather than qualified Caymanians, described overseas managers who drive local staff out to make room for friends from home, and said his own immigration department had grown “complacent”.

“We have a lot of very shady employers in our country,”

Michael Myles MP, the minister responsible for labour and border control, said in an interview with Radio Cayman on Friday.

“We have seen employers designing jobs for the work permit holder.”

The remarks, made ahead of a government job fair on Monday intended to match Caymanian jobseekers with employers, were the most pointed public assessment yet by the National Coalition for Caymanians (NCFC) government of conduct it says persists in the labour market despite reforms introduced this year.

Myles said the problem extends into the professional ranks. He described calls from lawyers and other white-collar workers who say they have been passed over for people brought in beneath them after years of strong performance reviews. He said some managers in the hospitality sector, though not all, deliberately frustrate Caymanian employees until they resign, then recommend acquaintances from home as replacements.

“That’s unfortunate and it’s disappointing, but that happens in our country,” he said.

Labour Market Remains Reliant on Overseas Workers

The allegations come against a labour market that remains heavily dependent on overseas workers. The latest Labour Force Survey put Caymanian unemployment at 4.1% in late 2025, down from 4.6% a year earlier, with an estimated 24,358 Caymanians employed. WORC figures put the number of active work permits at 37,075 as of 11 March. Demand for workers remains strong: 2,118 vacancies were posted on WORC’s Jobs Portal in July, bringing the total number of job postings from January through July to 13,637.

Myles did not name any employer or manager in the interview, which The Cayman Journal reviewed in full.

A department that must “do a better job”

Minister Myles did not confine his criticism to the private sector. Discussing the administration of immigration, he said he trusted the department’s director and was providing the resources needed, but acknowledged shortcomings.

“There’s been a lot of complacency within the department that we have to be able to push to make sure that we’re doing a better job,” he said.

He also pushed back against any perception that permit applications are routinely approved.

“We refuse more applications than we approve,” he said. “I see the documents.”

Myles challenged the common notion of a work-permit “renewal”.

“There’s no such thing as work permit renewal,” he said. “The law states that if a Caymanian is qualified for that job, that employer must hire that Caymanian.”

He urged Caymanians to apply through the Jobs Portal run by Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman, known as WORC, rather than only through an employer’s own website, because the portal creates a record the government can check. Without it, he said, “we have no clue that you apply, and the employer can say, ‘Well, I didn’t receive that resume.’”

The broad thrust of the government’s immigration reforms has drawn support from the opposition. Deputy Opposition Leader Kenneth Bryan MP told Parliament in June 2025 that he was “truly honoured” the legislature had “finally started to take this topic of immigration seriously”, though he has challenged elements of the package, including a rule that took effect 1 May requiring permit-related vacancies to be advertised for at least 21 days in a printed newspaper as well as on the portal.

“You can’t walk off of your job”

The sharpest portion of the interview concerned Caymanians already in work.

Myles said discrimination against Caymanians was a problem he, the immigration boards and the department all struggled with. He described overseas hires who arrive as experts and then prefer to work with associates from abroad, characterising the attitude as: “I don’t want this person to work with me. I would prefer my friend in Europe to work with me.”

Caymanian employees, he said, can be frustrated to the point of quitting, which he warned hands the employer an opening to recruit a replacement and tell immigration authorities the Caymanian “abandoned the job”.

“I’m asking Caymanians, please don’t leave your job. I understand the frustration; I’ve gone through it myself,” he said. “Be frustrated, walk outside, curse, scream, whatever you need to do, go home, sleep on it, but come back. You can find another job, but you can’t walk off of your job.”

Myles said he asks callers whether they have raised their concerns with human resources, and often finds they are reluctant to do so.

Hospitality and the “countrymen” pipeline

Myles was most specific about parts of the hospitality sector, while cautioning that he was not describing everyone in it.

“We have a number of folks within the hospitality sector that are in supervisor or middle management. They’re experts,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s all of them, but I have seen this happen multiple times.”

He alleged that some overseas managers aim to bring in workers from their own countries.

“Their sole goal is to have their countrymen come in and take those jobs,” he said.

Describing a process in which a Caymanian is frustrated until he or she leaves, after which the manager recommends someone from home to the employer. Employers focused on keeping operations running, he said, may be receptive.

Workers “petrified” to complain

Myles said the problem is not limited to Caymanians. Some expatriate workers, he said, will not lodge formal complaints about discrimination or bullying because they fear retaliation and depend on their jobs to support relatives overseas, including in Nepal, the Philippines and Jamaica.

“They are petrified of making that call,” he said.

From reform to recruitment

On Monday, the ministry’s hello2HIRED job fair will bring employers and Caymanian jobseekers together at the Grand Cayman Marriott Resort, with the aim of connecting local candidates directly with businesses looking to fill vacancies.

For years, Cayman’s immigration debate has revolved around numbers: how many work permits are issued, how many Caymanians are unemployed, how many vacancies employers say they cannot fill. Myles’s interview shifted the focus to what happens inside the hiring process: who applies, who is shortlisted, who is interviewed and who gets the job.

Monday will be about getting Caymanians hired. Friday’s interview raised the more uncomfortable question of what happens when a Caymanian is already standing at the door, and whether Elgin Avenue is watching closely enough to notice.