Dear Sir,

I read with interest economy and labour minister Jason Hayward’s intent to increase the working population by 25 per cent over the next five years. I cannot but wonder why I am here in Australia, working, instead of in Bermuda, the country that I have lived in for 18 years of my 19 years on this Earth.

I came to Bermuda at the age of 1, and have lived here ever since. Bermuda is where my parents are, where my friends are and where my dogs are. My parents both work in healthcare and have been fortunate enough to have their permits renewed, first as key workers when term limits came in, and then as essential workers during Covid. They have worked night shifts, holidays, Christmas and Cup Match, over and over. However, I have no right to work in Bermuda. I have no right to stay in Bermuda.

I would like to apply for a Permanent Resident’s Certificate with the new opportunity that became available in January if you have lived in Bermuda for 20 years. However, one of the requirements is that you have lived in Bermuda for the two years before applying. I cannot simply wait until I am 21 — and for the extra months that the application may take to go through — and do nothing while expecting my parents to support me. I chose to find work in a country that would allow me to work. Just days after walking into Australia, I find myself with a job and paying taxes to the Australian Government.

If the Bermuda Government wants to encourage young people to stay, maybe start with those who love Bermuda, who understand her culture, whose roots and friends are here. I am willing to bet that having attended 13 years of public school in Bermuda, I know the history of Bermuda and her people just as well as even the Bermudians that you hope to woo back to Bermuda, many of whom might not even have lived here in the past. I, of course, hope that they too come back, since I really want the land that I call home to succeed.

I am not the first person who has had to leave home to find work, but when the Government seems to be quite literally desperate for young people to be paying taxes, and rightly so, why can’t we who have lived here our whole lives not be recognised as potentially beneficial to Bermuda and be offered a chance?

It hurts, to be honest. In my heart, I wonder what is wrong with me. I tell myself that really it is nothing, and just politics, but it is politics that has affected the trajectory of my whole life, while those same politicians are pretending to beg for young people to be here working.

#giveusachance

SAMANTHA SNAPE

Smith’s