What Andrew Allen says about immigrant labour

is very interesting indeed.  I would not argue this point, nor have I ever done so, but it's worth a close look.  He has a point, and it's worth paying attention to it.

... Haitian labour actually retards our workforce and economy in a number of ways, none of which are good for the long-term development of The Bahamas ...The point at which a society undergoes genuine embourgeoisement (its labouring class, through movement up the skills/income ladder, is transformed into a recognizable middle class) is generally reckoned to be when its per capita income reaches $10,000.00 – a point which the Bahamas, with a PPP per capita income of $23,000.00 today, passed in about 1983.In an ordinary setting, given the increased spending power of Bahamian businesses and homeowners, as well as the increased opportunity for small business development, the use of unskilled Haitian peasant labour for landscaping, for instance, would long ago have been replaced by the more widespread use of landscaping companies.For not only can a landscape company (which benefits from economies of scale) compete well in price terms with a full time Haitian gardener who needs to be compensated, fed lunch and have his work permit paid for, but it can be held to a more consistent standard of service by the pressure of maintaining business goodwill.Yet as a matter more of culture than anything else, many Bahamian employers continue to opt for a form of labour that resembles slavery in every respect except cost-competitiveness. The supine Creole-speaking labourer being ordered about one’s lawn simply seems more in tune with the Bahamian idea of labour than the educated landscape specialist making his rounds.

The man has a point.