[TERPELAZIUN] Immigration Minister (2 June)

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise today with a Terpelaziun for the Immigration Minister, @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu .

The nation last welcomed a new citizen on the 23rd of March, over ten weeks ago. On top of this, the nation's population has actually declined since the current Government has taken office, with seven citizens immigrating and ten emigrating (including two outright renunciations).

In past terms, the incumbent Immigration Minister has compared multi-month spans with no immigrants, such as the one in which we currently find ourselves, to a house on fire. He also criticized the previous Government on immigration, at one point noting "Talossa is losing citizens faster than she's gaining them", the same situation in which his Immigration Ministry now finds itself.

In his response to a different Member's Terpelaziun on May 5th, the Minister stated:

I thank the MZ for his question.  In response, I think I'd like to hold off until a few more people are confirmed as possible assistants.

I don't feel there's any immediate time pressure, since we've already been implementing a lot of the other Royal Commission recommendations in extraordinary form:

• The Prime Minister's Patriotic Award has been restored, and we actually have produced a bunch of physical awards that can be sent out to recipients.  They are designed to be displayed on the lapel, collar, or pocket, and that will make them visible in pictures or on Zoom and unusually prestigious (as the only physical award).
• The New Citizen's Guide has been updated, reformatted, and restored in collaboration with the Secretary of State, and will soon be formally unveiled.  You can see a preview here.
  
• Our diplomatic efforts have been very fruitful, with a lot of communications both formal and informal.

We will continue to do even more, of course.  If the MZ hears of anyone of good character who is interested in volunteering for the TalossAssistant program, please send them my way.

To begin with, I would like to follow up on each of these responses, namely:

• Have any Prime Minister's Patriotic Awards been awarded to date?
• It has now been a month since the Minister noted an updated New Citizen's Guide had been completed. Can he state why it has not yet been "formally unveiled"?
• Can the Minister provide to the Ziu or public any evidence or results of the "very fruitful" diplomatic efforts he has described?
• Given that zero new citizens have been naturalized since the above response was given, is the Ministry re-assessing the situation to acknowledge any "immediate time pressure"?

Thank you.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Let me begin on a pleasant note by just thanking the MC and his party for the deal struck with the Government to help keep things running.  Having a significantly larger margin for error when it comes to confidence votes has been a boon just in terms of my own stress.  I'm also just glad in a broader way that we were able to prove that everyone can work together productively.

This wasn't a foregone conclusion, and a lot of credit is due to Dame Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC for never closing the door and being willing to keep lines of communication open.  While we've been fortunate in the immigration of the fine MC who has asked these many questions, there's something to be said for established relationships -- even if they are rivalrous!

So I'd like to thank the URL again for that, and offer my hopes we keep moving forward so productively.


We have not yet offered any Prime Minister's Patriotic Awards.  We sent out a bulletin to all citizens about the improved new El List near the end of February, and I want to send one out about the PMPA too.  But I don't want to spam people, so I wanted to let some time go by before we did that.  I'll probably ask the Chancery to send one out in the next couple of weeks.



I'm pretty proud of the PMPA.  While I didn't learn how to do 3-D design specifically for this, it's always fun to tackle little challenges on behalf of Talossa.  I've often said that this is one of the best things about our country: it prompts you to try all sorts of things, if you're bold enough to give it a try.

So we will wait to send them out a little longer until I feel like we've had a chance to notify everyone of their availability.  I don't know if we'll get a flood of new claimants, but it seems like the fair thing to do.


On immigration, the New Citizen's Guide will be made prominently available to all new citizens.  We're just in a lull in that regard.  It's quite worrying, actually: it's been two months with no new immigrants, and that's a problem.  Some of it has to do with the transition to the new immigration system.  For almost two weeks, no applications were possible.

Yes, it's a good thing that we closed the massive security vulnerabilities that existed before, with the personal information of hundreds of people exposed to anyone who gained access to any existing edit-approved accounts on the national website.  And yes, it's a good thing that we can now readily track all kinds of factors when it comes to the immigration process, giving us clues about what is working and what isn't.  But one typo bit us in the butt during the process, and so the process was broken for two weeks.  I guess that can happen with any big technical transition, but it was still regrettable.

One bit of good news is that this strongly supports the notion that active promotional efforts do seem to be effective: we had a sharp spike in successful immigration following a promo video and some Reddit advertisements, and we've had a sharp slump now that we haven't done any.

We're actually a little bit ahead of you when it comes to worrying about this, because I do think it's a problem.  That's why just last week the Minister of Propaganda posted a new promotional video, and we'll be doing more things like that to address the issue.  If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, here it is!

Now, it's possible that this won't have much effect and we won't see any kind of bump, but I'm betting that we will. 

I am very grateful to the member for his inquiry, and I eagerly await any follow-ups.  As the member can tell, we're very proud of our work and happy to discuss it.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Mr. Speaker, once the initial exchange is completed I would request to ask a supplementary question. I note with thanks (and surprise) the URL following up on a question from the Greens acting as HM Loyal Opposition.