| Earlier this month we told you that businesses were having a hard time finding workers for manual labor and entry level jobs. Many suggestions were made to open up the borders and let in migrant workers. The prime minister isn't opposed to the idea, but this morning on Sunup on 7 he said that it shouldn't be done haphazardly.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We're just starting the discussion to see how is it we could target certain migration. For instance, we don't want to just bring anybody to bring anybody. We want to make sure, okay, what is it that we need, we needs masons? Okay let's try to bring in masons. We need some more electricians, let's being in more electricians. These are the kind of people that we need to bring into Belize so it has to be targeted migration. We cannot continue the migration of the past where borders are pretty much open, you come and go visit your aunty, you like it, you stay. No, we have to follow the law, there's a process. But right now, we need more workers, the economy has been growing very fast and so we need to be able- and at the same time, we find a lot of Belizeans that have left to go to work in the United States, some all the way to the UK. They are preying on our workers, and they're leaving to go work over there when you have work in Belize, you don't necessarily need to leave."
Host:
"Some people would say it's because they offer better opportunities and better pay over there, how would you respond to that?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I challenge that. There are some, yes, but you see what happened is that in many instances we get caught up in, okay, I have a nice car, I have a nice apartment with AC, but you live from hand to mouth then because as your paycheck comes you have to pay car payment, you have to pay rent, you have to pay this, and you stay with next to nothing and it's from home to work, home to work, it's a lonely life. I have seen my family when I visit them, you have to get up before 6:00 and by 7:00 they're already going to work, they come back around 7:00 and then they have to hurry try to prepare something to eat, by the time they finish cleaning dishes, it's 10:00, it's time to sleep. We might not have all those nice fancy things, but we have a life, we have friends to go visit in the night, in the evening, it depends on what drives you. If you want fancy things, fine, live there, but it's a lonely life."
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