Government has made no decision on the possibility of introducing commercial immigration to the Island, Michael Fahy, the Minister for Home Affairs, has insisted.

At a public meeting last night, Mr Fahy said Government wanted to open up a dialogue with voters to see if the controversial issue was a viable option in attracting foreign investment into Bermuda. But he had to repeatedly tell a packed Cathedral Hall crowd that the policy was not “a done deal”, and that Government had made no decision on whether or not to adopt the scheme.

Commercial immigration allows individuals to gain certain residential and citizenship rights in another jurisdiction that they invest in.

At last night’s meeting Mr Fahy introduced Madeleine Sumption, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC — an independent think-tank looking at immigration trends worldwide.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs has invited Ms Sumption to Bermuda to deliver a presentation on models of Commercial Immigration around the world so that we may start an informed conversation to see if there is a suitable model for Bermuda,” Mr Fahy said.

“As you know this is in line with a Throne Speech initiative to start a conversation in this regard and the Ministry of Home Affairs has been examining the concept of Commercial Immigration as a method of stimulating economic investment.”

Mr Fahy said that the initiative had been adopted in more than 20 countries, including some Caribbean islands, the US, UK and Canada.

“We understand that Commercial Immigration may be beneficial to small countries as investor’s funds can be used in a number of creative ways to improve their economies,” Mr Fahy said.

“It is important to keep an open mind. The Government has not made any decisions in respect of any models or variations of models or for that matter on whether Commercial immigration is something to be pursued. Any assertion to the contrary are quite simply, false. Tonight is about information gathering and giving the public an opportunity to hear the facts from an independent, non-political think tank on commercial immigration. We feel this is the best way to start the conversation is to first share information on the subject with the people of Bermuda.”

Ms Sumption began her presentation by pointing out that there were huge differences in the type of commercial immigration programmes adopted by various countries.

“There are a lot of different policy choices that can be made and a huge variation in deign,” she said.

Investors could pump money into private businesses to provide jobs, or donate cash direct to governments to help fund infrastructure programmes. Buying government bonds or property were other options for investors looking to relocate.

According to Ms Sumption, there was also a wide range of benefits that investors were offered, from temporary status to immediate full citizenship.

And she also pointed out that the introduction of a commercial immigration policy does not always result in an influx of foreigners.

“There are a number of different reasons why people want to participate in investor programmes,” she said.

“People may want to settle in higher income countries, but many people don’t want to move right away — they want to have a second passport as a type of insurance policy because they’re worried about where their country is going,” she said.

Low taxation and the opportunity for visa-free travel were also benefits that investors could gain, Ms Sumption said.

And she acknowledged that, while schemes had many benefits — the International Monetary Fund recently refered to the citizenship programme as a major reason why St Kitts was able to reach it financial targets according to Ms Sumption — there were also potential controversies and “scandals”.

“Programmes that don’t have any meaningful residency requirements have been criticised because this is essentially selling citizenship and selling access to other countries through visa-free travel,” she said.