Day 238 - Work Permits

Image of men at work sign by Red~Cyan (Pro),
via Flickr.com

The Barbados government was very interested in having people come into the country to invest. There were many westerners, both North Americans and Europeans, interested in moving to Barbados to set up businesses. It sounded like synergy, but there was a disconnect between those two visions. The Barbados government's vision was foreigners depositing money into Barbados banks and then turning the business over to Bajans to do the work. The vision of the foreigners, however, involved hands-on management, or what the Barbados government considered work. And there is the catch. In order to work, foreigners need work permits. Employers are responsible for applying for the work permits. That makes it tough for a prospective self-employed foreigner.

The situation was probably more complicated with some other options, but these are my observations.

In Alex's case, it took 18 months for the government to issue a work permit, based on the application from the Barbados Telephone company. We will never know what the reasons were for the delay, but it seemed typical.

Image of a mini moke by kenjonbro, via Flickr.com

We met three couples whose experiences were different because they were their own bosses. The first were Canadians and owners of a rental car company specializing in renting mini mokes to tourists. Both husband and wife were present at their business all the hours they were open. But they were told they couldn't do anything. They couldn't answer the phone. They couldn't write up a lease. They couldn't sign the lease. They could only oversee.

The next couple, British, owned a pub and restaurant. Like the Canadian couple, they were warned not to do any work. They could not cook or serve food. They could not take orders or serve drinks at the bar. They could only oversee their employees.

One afternoon, when a delivery truck arrived, an immigration employee either saw or was told that the husband pushed a dolly with the supplies on it from the truck to the back door of the pub. That began their troubles with immigration which led eventually to their departure from Barbados.

The tea shop

The third couple were American and British, Martin* and Anna.* They had work permits from a small hotel they had managed before we met them. While they still had work permits, they opened a bakery and tea shop. They opened every morning by 8 and they stayed open until they sold everything they had baked that day. That ensured that everything they served was fresh and they never had to work too late in the day, making up for the early hours they kept to bake their goods. We used to have breakfast there Saturday mornings which is how we got to know them.

About a year later, Anna's mother fell ill and Anna had to travel to Florida to be with her. Martin kept the shop open, but a few months later it became clear that he would have to travel to Florida for awhile as well. He left the shop in the hands of their staff for a month. We continued to have breakfast there on Saturdays, but the quality of the baked goods was not the same at all. Instead of light gingerbread mini loaves, the loaves were heavy and stodgy,  and there was nothing flaky about the pastry of the Cornish pasties, making the convincing case for there being more to baking than just following a recipe.

While Martin and Anna were in Forida, their shop was robbed. Only their specialty kitchen equipment was stolen. When they returned to Barbados, their staff began to complain that they didn't understand why they shouldn't share in the profits of the shop since they worked there. Then when Martin and Anna applied for their work permits to be renewed, there were unexplained delays. They stuck around for a few more months until they decided to pack up and move to Florida.