Reservation for Goans

Dear All,

Please see letter in Herald Newspaper i.e. http://www.oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=19582&cid=13 (re-pasted below)

Reservations for GoansArwin Mesquita, Abu Dhabi Following the letter titled ‘No Reservation for Goans’ by Robert Castellino (Herald, 31 Mar), being a Non-Resident Goan myself, I would like to put the job reservation issue for Goans in perspective. All communities have limits up to which migrants can be welcomed. Goa has crossed this limit with minimum 40 per cent of Goa’s population being migrants. In fact, I would argue that Goans are more tolerant than most other communities. Will the other communities/Indian states tolerate such rapid change in demographics and deterioration of their local identities? I do not think so!Gulf countries are increasingly putting in place policies for job reservations for their locals – for example, Kuwaitisation, Emiratisation, etc. Also, Gulf Goans are temporary migrants (not permanent).The US, Canada, Europe, Australia and other countries are increasingly putting in place more stringent measures on immigration, to ensure that increased immigration does not seriously affect their local identities. This in effect means that jobs in these countries are reserved for their citizens.Also, countries that accept Goan emigrants (among others) have policies to localise all immigrants so as to preserve their identities and languages, whereas Goa is a free-for-all with increasingly many languages growing and prospering, except Konkani.Many employers in Goa are deliberately employing non-Goans for various reasons that suit their convenience – lower salaries, favouring their non-Goan friends/families, etc – even when there are suitable Goans available for the same.I think we should look at reservation in a civilised manner. Jobs that than can be done by Goans should be reserved for Goans; the rest of the “essential jobs” can be offered to outsiders. Nevertheless, the entire policy should be reviewed to ensure jobs are created based on requirement from Goans only. Yes, I appreciate that there will need to be essential jobs that will have to be manned by non-Goans but these jobs should be encouraged, only if absolutely required for Goa.

Please post your comments on my Blog: http://goanidentity.blogspot.com/

Please also see related Blogs:

1) http://www.bvacbenaulim.blogspot.com/

2) http://www.mandgoa.blogspot.com/