Guyanese immigrants make significant contributions to the development of the U.S. – Ambassador Hardt

TIMES INT'L

Guyana has been receiving tremendous benefits from the U.S., but the latter benefits more from the former, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana D Brent Hardt said.
In an exclusive interview with Guyana Times International, Ambassador Hardt noted that the U.S. is a land of immigrants.
“We have always benefitted from the people coming to us, bringing their skills and talents to our shores.” The U.S., he said, has a population of more than 300 million persons.

U.S. Ambassador to Guyana D Brent Hardt
U.S. Ambassador to Guyana
D Brent Hardt

“Guyanese are a big portion of American citizens, huge communities in New York, Atlanta, Florida and other areas and we greatly value the contributions they make in the United States.”
According to the diplomat, most Guyanese relocated to his country seeking better paying jobs and a higher standard of living, “But they do make significant contributions to the development of the United States”.
The ambassador told this publication that Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was senator for New York during that period, witnessed firsthand how much New York depended on the hard work and skills of the immigrant communities, especially the Caribbean and Guyanese.
Acknowledging that Guyana has lost much of its talented human resources to the U.S., the ambassador said although some measures are being taken to attempt to soften the effect of what is called ‘brain drain’; enough is not being done by the government.
“You can never say that anything that we will do will be enough to compensate, because there is nothing more important than the skills of the people of a country. The only way to build a country is to educate people and ensure that they are able to use that education and apply it in their country.”
Hinting on what could be done to stem the flow of Guyanese to the U.S., the ambassador said that the education system in Guyana needs to become more modernised.
“What is critical is that the people that grow up here have an educational system that will help them to get the jobs and the salaries that will make it worth the while to stay here and that people are prepared to give them the opportunities to grow in their professional lives.”

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