The Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC) and the sporting community have thrown their full weight behind proposed sweeping changes to the country’s immigration framework, labelling them a “game-changing” opportunity to combat a shrinking local workforce and elevate national sports teams on the global stage.

Appearing before the joint select committee on the economic and productive sectors to discuss the Immigration and Barbados Citizenship bills, BEC executive director Sheena Mayers-Granville said managed migration is an essential remedy for the country’s current demographic challenges.

“We welcomed the opportunity to review and comment on these two pieces of legislation, and we reviewed them especially in the context of the Barbados population policy,” Mayers-Granville told the committee.