The Caribbean has historically been an area that has both benefitted and suffered from migration: most of its present population were brought in from outside the region to provide labour on plantations after the indigenous peoples were decimated or wiped out. With the severe level of underdevelopment imposed by the colonial powers, from the 20th century, outward migration provided a vent for the seething masses.
While there was some inter-territorial migration, especially from the smaller islands into more prosperous territories like Trinidad and Tobago, in the main, the flow of population was directed towards the metropolitan centres.
This trend, which accelerated after WWII, has never really been severely reduced, much less reversed. Initially, the underlying push and pull factors were primarily economic: the colonies had few economic opportunities, while the metropoles needed cheap labour. It was a vicious circle that defined “underdevelopment”: the colonial powers insisted that all industries be located in their countries so the colonies were restricted to producing primary products which, by definition, could not generate sufficient profits to pay large salaries or wages. The migration of unskilled labour was the export of one more “primary product”.
While Guyana did have its share of post-war emigration to Britain, Canada and the U.S., the numbers paled in comparison to those from Jamaica or Barbados. But beginning from the 1970s the tempo picked up to the U.S. after that country loosened its immigration laws, while Britain tightened theirs in the preceding decade.
This also coincided with the inexorable collapse of the Guyanese economy under the PNC’s cooperative-socialism experiment. The rate of illegal migration eclipsed the legal migration from this period and was helped immeasurably by the policy of the U.S. to allow illegal immigrants to be sponsored by their U.S. born children.
By the 1990s, the phenomenon had become so structurally embedded into the society that it had proven impossible to reverse. While there are many who bemoan Guyana’s very high rate of emigration by tertiary graduates (the figure of 85 percent is regularly touted) the comparable figures from Jamaica and even Trinidad are not very far off.
Yet, the latter has decreased its “push factors” very significantly, to a point where it has recently been given the status of a “developed country”. With the continued gloomy economic news emanating from that country in addition to Jamaica and Barbados, their emigration rates are expected to inch upwards once again.
While the emigration from the Caribbean has led to the well documented “brain-drain”, there has been a growing recognition and acceptance of the positive side of the migration coin, in that remittances from the departed citizenry now routinely surpass significantly, the flow of foreign direct investments into the region. This has led to calls for mechanisms to harness these funds for more sustainable developmental initiatives than consumer spending. But there can be other positive benefits harvested to the local developmental efforts which can maybe more effectively challenge the major push factor: comparatively low local wages.
For instance, the level of remittances suggest that the emigrants have done well economically in their new homelands and while this might make them less willing to re-migrate, if there are suitable investments identified to them in their “native lands” they might be willing to invest.
These investment vehicles have been used very effectively by other diasporas, especially in the Eastern European countries, China and India. At present, there is an ongoing project sponsored by the International Office for Migration (IOM) to map the overseas Guyanese community, but it is our position that the effort must be much more focused on investment opportunities.
Simultaneously, there has to be a more concerted effort by the administration to counter the slew of negative news on Guyana being purveyed by the sensationalist yellow tabloids originating in Guyana and consumed by overseas Guyanese, who might conclude the investment risks here are too high.
