Opposition Ministerial Report Card: Immigration (A - Aceptaval/Acceptable)

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Immigration (Miestra Schiva)

The Ministry of Immigration received five terpelaziuns during the previous Cosa term. All terpelaziuns were from the Green Party with one supplementary question from the Progressive Alliance. Terpelaziuns were almost always answered very promptly, but there were a couple of instances where responses were not respectful. Responses were always informative. There was no progress on provincial catchment reform but a procedural change in screening applicants appears to have achieved its intended result, so far, without causing such a burden to decrease the flow of new applicants. The rating would have been good if not for the overlooking of a technical issue which completely stopped immigration for three months. This was not discovered until another terpelaziun to the Seneschal by the Progressive Alliance`s Alexandreu Davinescu. Minister Schiva's initial response did not indicate the Government understood the seriousness of the issue and raised concerns with the extent the Government prioritized immigration. Later actions remedied this.
Upon review of responses from the specific terpelaziuns listed below we noted the following highlights:

August 6, 2024 https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3447.0

On August 6th, 2024 Minister Schiva responded as follows to our terpelaziun: "I thank the member for this question. We got quite a lot of pushback for that manifesto commitment, if I remember right. The big issue about provincial assignment reform is that the main function of the provinces in our Constitution right now - given they are mostly inert as far as self-government goes - is as constituencies for Senäts elections, and that therefore the question of assignment of new citizens is one of gerrymandering. So, if the current debate on Organic Law reform settles on moving away from one-province-one-Senäts-seat, then the question of provincial assignment reform becomes, IMHO, moot. Even more so, if possibly the question of the existence of self-governing provinces is brought into question. Does that make sense?"

The Opposition notes there was no progress on this particular part of the Avant coalition's programme during the term. This was, however, an informative explanation of the current state of affairs regarding the provinces and why changes to them is such a thorny endeavor.

September 5, 2024 https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3486.0

On September 7, 2024 Minister Schiva responded as follows to our terpelaziun: "I thank the Member for his question. Right now, "broosking" (the active recruitment of prospective citizens to political parties) is not a problem. Getting new citizens to actually participate and stick around is the problem, towards which the Government has been bending its energy. But I am quite surprised that the Member is so worried about broosking, since his former political party was the main beneficiary of it for years.

The Opposition was surprised by Minister Schiva`s determination that broosking is not a problem. And noted this response was not a respectful reply as it trafficked in an untrue and inflammatory accusation which appears to belie her assertion that it is not a problem. That accusation was the primary reason for the terpelaziun.

November 2, 2024 https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3616.0

On November 3, 2024 Minister Schiva responded as follows to a terpelaziun concerning the decrease in new immigrant applications: "I thank the member for his question. The Government is certainly aware that the immigration pipeline has closed off altogether since the rush from the Argentinian YouTuber ended, and this is an issue which has concerned me in particular. One suggestion I keep raising is for a Landing Pier on Wittenberg, open to "interested parties" (on pain of ruthless moderation) who might not be ready for citizenship yet - the technical people in the back room have got it on their to-do list down the line. We know from previous Governments that Google Ads are a waste of money and we are not aware of any other means of paid promotion - so we would have to rely on what they call "earned media". The best means towards that is our social media outreach, which has unfortunately been hampered due to the respective Minister's extra-Talossan commitments. But this is, at the moment, our Government's "best bet" on the issue."

The Opposition notes this was an informative reply. The suggestion for the Landing Pier, was a longstanding one, and the Opposition set a reminder to enquire with the relevant Ministry in the following month.

On November 18, 2025 Baron Alexandreu Davinescu submitted a supplemental question concerning the low rate of immigration and requested that the Government give first priority to the issue. Minister Schiva responded as follows: "No, we won't do that, if only because there's a list of at least 20 things that the Open Society party will scream about if we stop doing them. EDITED TO ADD: There is a small chance that the immigration form on talossa.com has simply ceased to work, or at least has ceased to forward immigration applications to the Immigration webmails. That would explain a lot. The Tech boys have been alerted."

The Opposition notes the revelation of a technical issue affecting immigration but was unable to determine, at the time, how long the issue had gone unnoticed. The Opposition further notes the unfortunate insinuation that there would be disagreement from the Green Party (Open Society) with redirecting resources toward this urgent issue by the Minister which was less than respectful and certainly not helpful to resolving the issue.

Also on November 18, 2025 Minister Schiva elaborated as follows: "The Immigration Ministry has the grim task of provisionally confirming that the talossa.com immigration form seems to have simply not forwarded any emails to anyone since August 2 this year. Looking in the files, there appear to be something like forty (40) immigration applications which have been stuck in the "bit bucket" for most of my Government's term. This is a failure of the STUFF/Backend part of the Government which I am chasing up with urgent haste. However, I am pleased to note that this is not a failure of the Immigration part of the Government. I have emailed every single one of these applicants personally and invited them to renew their applications."

The Opposition notes this was an adequate response to an urgent issue which temporarily crippled national immigration, it would appear, for over three months. While this was a failure of the Government it was handled with transparency, once the issue was identified, and then resolved expeditiously.

December 7, 2024 https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3682.0

On December 8, 2024 Minister Schiva responded as follows to a terpelaziun suggesting minor modifications to the Immigration thread: "I thank the Member for his constructive suggestion. I had forgotten we'd done that, as it wasn't done in the previous Government, but now I've flipped back to last year and I see what you mean. I think what I'll probably do is lock old threads, but add a notation for those who got citizenship."

The Opposition notes this was an informative and respectful reply.

February 14, 2025 https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3829.0

On February 15, 2025 Minister Schiva responded as follows to a terpelaziun seeking assurances the constructive suggestion was being implemented: "Yes, those are the ones with the Citizen Petition threads still open."

The Opposition notes the new arrangement in the Immigration threads.