Only eight percent of people working in Front and Back Streets are of Antillean origin, research conducted into the labour situation in St. Maarten has uncovered. An eight-page report on the research and its findings, a copy of which The Daily Herald has been able to obtain, pointed to what was referred to as an anti-local employment tendency, with a 17.3 per cent unemployment rate and most of the employed being foreigners. The Island Government's Welfare, and Labour Department described the situation as “unacceptable. The current immigration policy is being exploited to import cheap labour. A popular supermarket, for instance, has 24 employees, 12 of whom are managers. That is one manager per employee. That is possible, due to the immigration policies the department wrote. It explained that, as companies claim they can't find local people to employ, they request work permits for managers. (It is common knowledge that requests for work permits for lower-level employees are not likely to be approved). That is why today there is eight per cent local employment in Front and Back Street and why 45 per cent of the remaining 92 percent foreign employees are managers. That is unacceptable, it stated. It also mentioned situations where jewelers have six employees, four of whom are gemologists and none of whom is an Antillean; of a security company with 62 employees, three of whom are Antilleans and 54 of whom are foreigners without work and residence permits. These companies still received permits to employ foreign workers. Why? Because there were no locals available. Companies send for cheap employees and train them to do jobs for which locals could also be trained. Local workers are just too expensive, the report stated. The report contended that St. Maarten has developed in "anti-local" employment tendency which only dupes locals. "Employers (foreign and local) claim that local workers are inexperienced, lazy, untrustworthy and aggressive," the report stated. This, it added, has created a tendency which keeps local people from finding jobs. It has also resulted in an increase in requests for financial support and an increase in job offers to foreigners. It continued: "Noticeable is the increase in requests for permits for Jamaicans and Guyanese. They replace the locals in the security retail business." The report contends further that, because of these tendencies, government's tax income is under pressure, there is chronic unemployment among locals, foreign earnings do not stay here, more shacks are built, crime increases and more and more youngsters go astray.

The department suggested giving unemployed locals the chance to re-school themselves, a re-examination of the policies on scholarships and the establishment of businesses, and an urgent readjustment of immigration policies. Furthermore, it suggested a stricter control of employers to ensure they adhere to labour laws and that violation of these laws is punished.