[Terplaziun] for the Minister of Public Records

[GV]

My question is for the Minister of Public Records. Opposition politicians have been saying that this Government's performance on immigration has been notoriously bad, issuing calls for urgent action of some unspecified nature. Can the Minister provide any public records to compare immigration application levels in this Cosa with previous terms?

- GV, Senator for Fiova

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Estimat Mençei,

I thank the Senator for his question. Ministry records, as collected in the Infotecă system, would indicate that the period of April to July of this year saw 31 applications, with an additional 12 in August by my count, for a total of 43 so far (excluding the two just posted so far in September). If we extrapolate this out through the end of November, that would imply the nation is on pace for 69 applications in the period between the conclusion of most recent election and the conclusion of the next one.

For comparison, using the same period between elections, previous Cosas saw the following application numbers:
- 60th Cosă: 69
- 59th Cosă: 62
- 58th Cosă: 86
- 57th Cosă: 66

These would appear to bear out the Government's assertions that the issue lies in keeping prospective citizens interested in Talossan life and maintaining an atmosphere that encourages immigration, as opposed to getting people to apply in the first place.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Supplementary question, please, estimat Túischac'h!

Can the Minister confirm that the lowest number on that list, the 59th Cosa, was the last time that the current Opposition parties were in power?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I also have a supplementary question.  I am surprised those are even allowed, since I was under the impression that we weren't allowed to jump onto an active terpelaziun thread until the original questioner was able to ask their own follow-up.  But since it's allowed, I'm game.

It seems to me that applications might speak to our general popularity and fame, but that actual immigration speaks to what people see when they take a look at Talossa -- how it is to be here and how it's being run.  So to add on: what percentage of these applications in each term yielded actual immigrants?

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

I also have a supplementary question.  I am surprised those are even allowed, since I was under the impression that we weren't allowed to jump onto an active terpelaziun thread until the original questioner was able to ask their own follow-up.  But since it's allowed, I'm game.

As the supplementary questions were both posed by Members of the Cosă, I intended to address this point of order to the Túischac'h. The Baron may have a valid point regarding the timing of supplementary questions, and I wished to get clarification from the Chair regarding the best course of action. However, as it appears the incumbent Túischac'h is the second presiding officer to be harrassed into silence (or worse) in the last two years, I concede that such a ruling is not likely to come soon. Therefore, to ensure I abide by my legal obligations, I will simply answer both now, begging the Senator's pardon.

Supplementary question, please, estimat Túischac'h!

Can the Minister confirm that the lowest number on that list, the 59th Cosa, was the last time that the current Opposition parties were in power?

This is correct.

It seems to me that applications might speak to our general popularity and fame, but that actual immigration speaks to what people see when they take a look at Talossa -- how it is to be here and how it's being run.  So to add on: what percentage of these applications in each term yielded actual immigrants?

Going again off the numbers found on Infotecă:

• 57th Cosă: 8/66 = 12%
• 58th Cosă: 8/86 = 9%
• 59th Cosă: 11/62 = 18%
• 60th Cosă: 6/69 = 9% (While the application numbers from the 60th Cosă as recorded in Infotecă appear to be accurate, the naturalization numbers appear to have a clerical error or two, so I arrived at a count of six simply by counting on the Database. I do intend to review the Infotecă numbers more thoroughly in the near future.)
• 61st Cosă through August: 1/43 = 2.3%

There are a few things to note:

• There are two citizenship petitions (Julian Da Silva and Nicolás Masquiarán-Díaz) currently pending response from the prospectives in question to the Chancery. If both of those successfully naturalize, the 61st Cosă rate will rise to 3/43 = 7%, significantly more in line with previous terms.
• The 59th Cosă's outlier percentage rate is partially driven by the lower number of applications.
• The 60th Cosă, which of course saw a Government largely identical to the current one, saw a similar percentage of applicants naturalize as both the 57th and 58th Cosas.
• A corollary to the previous point is that the largely static immigration policy between the 60th and 61st Governments is not the source of the reduced naturalization rate.
• In other words, as most of the country has been able to figure out so far, something else must be at play here.

One likely cause that has been cited by people across the political spectrum is the particularly divisive atmosphere in Talossan politics at the moment, to the point that even MC's from the Member opposite's party have expressed concern at the vitriol that he is intent on maintaining.