Terpelaziun for the Seneschal

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

S:reu Tuischac'h:

It seems to me like the Government is very reluctant to address the immigration issue, even though it's obviously a crisis.  We just had a span of four months with zero immigration, and in the entire term, there have been only two total immigrants.  The country is shrinking, and getting quieter.

The Progressive Alliance has been desperately trying to do our part.  Our party leader is one of the most active civil servants in the country, regularly updating the social media channels with interesting things to try to appeal to others.  I have been producing some of the best and most accessible new language content in many years, as well as leading the charge on combating misbehavior.  We're doing our part to help.

But we're not in charge, and we need the people who are in charge to act like they care about this.

As the members of the Ziu might recall, this is the second time in two terms there has been a four-month span with zero immigration, under this same Government and Seneschal.  Last time, on 18 November 2024, I sharply questioned the Seneschal:

It looks like immigration has fallen off a cliff.  Last time this was brought up, I thought it was too early to draw any conclusions, but at this point it's been three months, and in that time there has been one single immigration application and zero naturalizations.  We had a pretty steady three-month rolling average of slightly over one immigrant a month for a long time, and now the average is zero.

It seems to me like this should be the number-one, absolutely top priority of the Government.  But currently the only solution the Government is proposing is social media outreach, and even that isn't currently happening.

Would you guys please drop everything else and immediately switch to focusing on this issue above all others, tell us what exactly you plan to do, and let us know when those things are happening?

The Government's initial response was a flat "No," saying that they had other priorities that they had to maintain because of political pressure from MC Tzaracomprada.  However, later that same day, the Seneschal added that there was a chance that the immigration form had malfunctioned.  She said she'd check.

Twenty minutes later, the Seneschal confirmed that the form had indeed stopped working.  It hadn't been working for months.

They had never bothered to check.  Forty people had applied to immigrate, and their applications went nowhere.

I repeat: the Government of the Kingdom of Talossa had watched immigration applications drop to zero for months, and they'd never bothered to check and see if the application was working.

To date, there has been no accountability for this failure.  No one resigned.  No one was reprimanded.

Now once more we have another immigration crisis, four months after the last one.  For another four-month span, there were no immigrants.  Immigration has plummeted, and we near the end of the term with two total immigrants.

So here we are again.  Maybe this isn't a surprise, since there were no consequences last time.

The Progressive Alliance had a strong, clear message, announced in a speech back in June.  We demanded that the Government draw attention to the problem, try many new things to fix it, and set specific goals.  We had a bunch of ideas for programs and initiatives, one of which was eventually tried by the Government (two months later!).  But we couldn't make them do much more.

The Government does not want to discuss this.  They are slow-walking any attempts to identify a root cause or pattern.  Indeed, the Seneschal famously even said that she didn't think there was much they could even do, since "you can't create a marketing campaign for a pile of garbage."

This all brings me to my terpelaziun for the Seneschal:

Would the Seneschal please provide to this chamber a point-by-point description of the Government's plan to address this crisis?

Thank you, S:reu Tuischac'h.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Estimat Túischac'h, I thank the member for his question... eventually, coming at the end of a long  speech which I admittedly just skim-read. I doubt I missed anything, since I could probably recite his talking points from memory.

First, may I note the successful immigration of three new citizens in the last month or two! Not exactly a flood; but, if you're honest, an improvement, a sign that we're doing something and it's working. The Member is an honest man, or at least knows what honesty is.

But of course, it's not good enough yet! The Government's ongoing plan to address the immigration downturn comes under four headings.

1. Enacting the consensus proposals of the Royal Commission on Immigration; once those proposals have been established. The Commission was set up precisely to agree on consensus reforms, to take the question of immigration out of the realm of overheated partisan rhetoric - which is why, I, personally did not take part in it. I assumed that if the Distáin took point for the Government, a consensus solution acceptable to all parties would emerge. I may have been wrong, because maybe some participants just wanted the overheated partisan rhetoric.

2. Beyond that, the Government has enacted certain Commission proposals piecemeal. One example would be simplifying the immigration form. Another was a trial run in reviving the "TalossAssistant" process, where cxhn. Tierçéu Rôibeardescù volunteered to help the immigration of someone who lived near her. Again, the Member is an honest man, or at least knows what honesty is, so he will admit that although these have received mixed success at best, but they have been done.

3. Beyond that, one of the problems with the fact that another Member has successfully bullied the Túischac'h out of action is that, in a proper legislature, the Chair would be able to tell questioners that this question has already been answered. And it has been, repeatedly. Here is me to the Member for Sexpestery last month:

given the fact that there is a bustling and busy pipeline of prospective citizens, very few of whom are currently going on to claim citizenship, the problem is not with any alleged deficiency in "recruitment" of prospective citizens. It boils down to what they find when they get here and see what Talossa is like. Clearly, they don't like what they see (as opposed to what they might have read about, on our websites or in other media), and this above all is what the Government is seeking to deal with.

At the moment, the Government is most interested in creating a healthy, non-toxic environment in Talossa.

Part of that is trying not to participate in overheated partisan rhetoric. In discussions with new citizens, I have been struck by their surprise at how virulent Talossan politics are. One big problem in Talossa is when political parties recruit straight out of the pipeline - though this is not technically "broosking", I maintain that it is a predatory strategy to "line up" newbies in pre-existing grudges before they really know what's what. The member will remember that, although this strategy was extremely successful for the TNC once, what it actually did was empower a sex pest. The problem is that if one party does it, the other parties have to do it in self-defence. But I don't think we can solve this until all major parties are run by people who aren't despicable.

4. Beyond that, the Immigration platform on which the URL party will be running in the next Cosa election, is mostly contained in the draft legislation recently submitted by the Distáin / URL Seneschal candidate.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

S:reu:

I am grateful for the Seneschal's reply.

I'm glad that we've increased from two to four immigrants this term, so we're back to only a 50% drop in immigration.  That's improvement.  I am also glad that the Seneschal explained concerns about political vitriol to myself, someone who she recently called in her headline speech a "Svengali" who's in the "Bad" party that's really a "high school clique."  Much appreciated.

And, of course, I am glad that there was some effort.  The Government addressed the crisis by improving the immigration form, and asking one person to be a TalossaAssistant.  Thank you.

I will also take careful note of these future plans.  I may have a further supplementary question soon.