Estimat Tuischac'h,
The immigration rate since this Government took office a year ago has been quite poor, with an average of 0.75 new citizens a month (ie, 9 a year). Over the past two months, it's been zero.
In the same time, sixteen citizens have left the country.
This seems like a serious problem. I would like to invite the Seneschal to please speak to her plan to address this crisis specifically.
I thank the Member for his question. Under law, responsibility for recruitment to Talossa is a joint activity of the Immigration and STUFF portfolios, and the matter has been recently discussed by myself and the new Minister of STUFF, who - as I'm sure the member is aware - just took office a couple of weeks ago.
The Member is invited to look at the large number of immigration applications that have been submitted and posted during this Government's most recent term in office. The question will be: why did none of these applications - since March 13 of this year - become citizens? None of these applications was "thrown in the trash" because they didn't tick a box on the Immigration form, or because they offended the Immigration minister. Most of these applications were interacted with by citizens. Some were even proposed for citizenship - but, sadly, never returned their oath.
This Government is very interested in the reason for that. But one thing we're sure of - despite irresponsible speculations from some, it's not because of a problem in the immigration pipeline. That pipeline is flowing admirably - even with the very minimal quality control currently being applied. The Member will be aware that any applications that were questioned have been reported in a private forum, and the number is a tiny percentage of those who have been presented to the nation.
The Government is following several lines of thought. Publicity is the obvious one. As is well known, the Foreign Ministry is working closely with the King to open lines of diplomacy with other Talossa-like entities, and to get publicity for Talossa more broadly. It is my guess that "cross-citizenship" with existing citizens of other Talossa-like entities may be a way to get good quality citizens. This is one of the reasons I was very keen on establishing the Landing Pier; the more that people who are already familiar with the conventions of micronationalism see how we do things, the more they might think we're doing it right. Conversely, one of the reasons I was "down" on the "chatbot for Cabinet" proposal was precisely that that would have not attracted the right kind of attention.
But honestly, my gut feeling is that Talossa is right now unattractive to newcomers. Simply put, people are not going to immigrate a community that's boring, annoying, full of petty feuds, creepery, etc. Something that I find increasingly amazing is people who think that all we need to do to get new citizens is to loudly announce to everyone that Talossa exists, rather than questioning how we can make Talossa more attractive to newbies. Could it be that these people who make immigration applications take one look at what we do here and are not impressed?
I believe that a previous government attempted to take out paid advertising for Talossa, and it came to nothing. I am convinced that you can't create a marketing campaign for a pile of garbage. The immigration rate - understood as how many new people join up - is a function of how attractive Talossa is, not how easy it is to click on an internet form; and the current level of quality control, turned all the way down in response to Opposition complaints, would indicate that.
A final note is that the Government is still looking for someone to function as an "immigration greeter", since the previous incumbent found it too hard. Still, plenty of people have been greeting new prospectives, with very little success.
I am grateful to the Seneschal for this thoughtful and detailed reply, although I object to the characterization of Talossa as a "pile of garbage" -- even as a metaphor.
One thing I notice is that the current immigration rate is half of what it was under the preceding Government. What do you think is responsible for this sharp decline? It seems like applications have actually increased, so what has suddenly caused so many potential citizens to turn away. In other words, what would you say suddenly changed in terms of policy?
I ask because it's such a dramatic shift... we're not talking about a long-term decline, here. We're talking about nearly a 50% drop in the span of a year. What do you think has been the cause of this drop during your tenure as Seneschal?
Estimat Túischac'h, since this is a formal Terpelaziun thread, I would remind the Member to address their supplementary questions through the Chair.
Notwithstanding that - I am glad that the Member recognizes that the problem here is not getting applicants onto Wittenberg. Given that, I repeat my skepticism that the problem here is policy. Nothing has effectively changed in that regard. In fact, the Government has at least attempted to formalise greeting new citizens, though - as has been mentioned elsewhere - we're having a "warm body problem" in that regard. But whether we greet new citizens or not on the Immigration board doesn't seem to make a heap of difference.
I repeat that I see the problem with keeping people around as being with you might call the "vibe" of Talossa. I think we must avoid the temptation to post hoc ergo proper hoc reasoning. I would like to locate the vibe shift in the unpleasantness which followed the 59th Cosa election (a lot of which the Member was absent for). But the sufficiently creative could argue a coincidence with the accession of King Txec, which I hope we would agree would be mischievous.
It could even be that the problem is a civil society problem. I hate to say it, but political parties have previously done a great job integrating and encouraging new citizens - even if those were generally parties I opposed, who successfully recruited out of that.
The too-long-didn't-read of it, Estimat Túischac'h, is that the Government is not sure why immigration has dried up. But we agree it is a problem, we seek solutions, and we resent any implication that we are apathetic or even antipathetic to it.
I thank the Seneschal for her reply, and I will do better about directing my questions through the Honourable Tuischac'h.
I have a further inquiry, if I may?
If I understand the Most Honourable Seneschal correctly, she mentions some possibilities for the sudden sharp drop in immigration in her posts, but ultimately doesn't seem to find any of them persuasive. Instead, she says that the Government doesn't really know why people's interest in Talossa has declined sharply during her tenure as Seneschal.
This seems like an incredibly bad situation. As far as I can tell, it is the opinion of the Government that Talossa somehow rapidly become much worse under their leadership in the last year, but that they don't know why and they don't know how to fix it. In most countries or organizations, this admission would be accompanied by resignations.
So my supplemental question is this: why doesn't the Government seem to consider this an urgent matter? I know that the Seneschal resents the notion that the Government doesn't care much about this, but the only things being proposed are "more of the Landing Pier" and "greet potential immigrants even though we don't think this will help." This is a crisis, right? It seems like an "all hands on deck, everyone focus on this" moment. Can the country please hear a coherent plan that's suitable to meet the moment?
Estimat Túischac'h: I gather from this second supplementary question that the Member would consider resignations to be an appropriate response from the Government to the lack of prospectives progressing to citizenship. My government takes all citizen feedback seriously.
Accordingly, I have offered my resignation as Immigration Minister to the Cabinet, if they lacked confidence in my current policy and administrative settings.
This offer was rejected unanimously.
Consequently, I have approached His Majesty the King and offered my resignation as Seneschal, if he considered that my current policy and administrative setting around Immigration were lacking.
This offer was also rejected.
The King of Talossa communicated to me that he has full confidence in his Government's current stance towards immigration. He agrees with the Government's action that the current disappointing immigration figures are due to toxicity and destructiveness in Talossan culture, rather than to Government action or inaction.
I am sure that this strong vote of confidence will be persuasive for the Member, who is known to be the strongest soldier for the Monarchy's role in Talossan life.
On a less happy note, the tone of this supplementary question is not up to the Member's usual standards of probity. "All hands on deck" is not a serious policy demand, but a request for the "theater of urgency". "Coherent plan" is possible only when the causes of the problem have been solidly identified. The Member knows that doing stuff for the sake of doing it is not the Government's style.
The Member has no program for turning more prospectives into citizens. The charitable explanation is that he just wants the "theater of urgency" as an indicator that we share his distress. A cynical explanation is that demands to "do something" in vague terms are an effective electoral slogan, even if the successive government would not have a plan to "do anything" either. Except put all of its hands on the deck, perhaps.
We continue to work to reduce toxicity and destructiveness in Talossan life (a minor part of which is an effort to reply to unkind criticism with a civil tongue in our heads). We discuss ways to market Talossa effectively to attract people who want to be active citizens, not just fill in a form and then do nothing. We discuss how to integrate new prospectives and new citizens in Talossan life through getting them involved in Talossan discourse and activity.
With some of this, we fail to get results. We screw up. We drop balls due to lack of staffing. But the consensus of the King and his Government is that this is the best way forward, and if the Member has a secret plan up his sleeve to, I don't know, get a whole bunch of citizens in "two weeks"? I look forward to seeing it, at the next election.
Estimat Tuischac'h:
I am sorry that the Seneschal does not appreciate this line of questioning. I will note that my question was a simple, if unpleasant one.
While I appreciate the theatrics of the Seneschal, I would guess that there was little doubt that her own supporters or His Majesty would affirm her leadership. Her supporters in her party are, well, her supporters. And His Majesty has very consistently confirmed his ironclad support for this Government. I respect his judgment, but I disagree with it.
I also appreciate the answers that the Most Honourable Seneschal has offered, but I regret to say that I find them wanting.
The Opposition has pointed out that the immigration rate has plummeted nearly 50% over the course of this past year of the Seneschal's leadership. We asked to know what plans and efforts were underway to address this -- even simply to investigate it. And when asked if there's any plan, what does the Seneschal offer the people?
No plan, but she does have indignation to offer us: indignation that anyone might expect her to try to solve a national crisis, merely because she's the leader.
No plan, but she does have scorn to offer us: scorn at the "unjust criticism" of pointing out the undeniable fact that a disaster is unfolding under her tenure, again.
No plan, but she does have mockery to offer us: a demand for solutions to solve this problem in two weeks after it's been developing for a year.
The Opposition does intend to offer alternative ideas at the next election, and we expect success. We expect that the people will demand more than indignation, scorn, and mockery. We expect that the people will demand results from their leaders, not the rhetorical equivalent of a shrug.
Regardless, I would like to thank the Seneschal for her time. I -- and the whole country -- wish her all the luck in the world.
I beg the Túischac'h's permission to make two corrections for the historical record.
I categorized the Member's criticisms as unkind, not "unjust". I stand by that categorization.
The mention of "two weeks" was not intended as a challenge to the Member. It was a reference to the habit of the President of the United States to promise to fix any problem within "two weeks", and then not do anything, because the purpose of the promise was just to focus rage against his opponent.
Grült méirçi.