Over the years I have learnt to take up any offer to hold hands with the media with a hint of trepidation. But this time around I feel safer as the chaperone is the United Nations. And even though not the blue helmets of the peacekeeping force, the United Nations Population Fund grants me enough cover to feel reasonably safe particularly as over the years we have had a close and fruitful co-operation relationship. We look forward to an even closer and more productive relationship in the face of the upcoming restructuring.
Let me at the outset congratulate the winners who have trod the path of the finest traditions in journalism by seeking truth including shedding light on dark, uncomfortable areas of our society. I also wish to congratulate our hosts, the United Nations for encouraging the pursuit of this profession, which plays such a significant and crucial role in the development of our Community. This fact has been recognised by our Heads of Government, who in 1995 accorded to media workers the right to move and work freely within the Caribbean Community. You were among the first to be so granted along with university graduates.
These two categories were viewed as the vanguard of our internal migration, as it were, to foster integration through making available on the one hand a larger cadre of trained human resources and on the other a wider canvas to paint the story of integration. This facilitation of internal migration therefore was seen as vital to the development of the region and as a catalyst for the success of the then imminent CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Ladies and Gentlemen, the topic on which I have been asked to elaborate, Migration and Development: In the Context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, has particular resonance at this time. The issue of migration has loomed large on the international stage in recent times and has been a flash point in electoral politics on both sides of the Atlantic. But this is not new. Two hundred years ago, migration, forced as it was at that time, or to use the more accurate terminology human trafficking, having become less profitable, more divisive and increasingly pernicious, the Europeans abolished it. Indeed next year there will be a commemoration – not celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic African Slave Trade – truly one of the most pernicious of its kind in history.
But it is not only in the arena of electoral politics that the issue of migration has been discussed. The parent body of our hosts tonight – the United Nations – deemed it important enough to hold a High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development at a Special Session of the General Assembly last September at the UN’s New York headquarters. One hundred and twenty-seven Member States demonstrated their interest by making their views known on the floor at levels ranging from a vice president through cabinet ministers and vice-ministers.
Earlier in the year in May in Vienna, Austria, leaders of 59 countries, 32 from Latin America and the Caribbean and 27 from Europe, at the Fourth Summit of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean (EU/LAC Summit) shared their views on migration and enunciated them in the Vienna Declaration, the final document emerging from the Summit.
In both fora, the scope and complexity of migration were recognised as well as the potential for migrants to be a positive force for development in the receiving country but less so in the source countries. Both meetings underscored the need for the dialogue on the issue to continue at all levels, globally and regionally as we are doing here tonight.
International Migration That is not surprising, given that today, the number of people who live outside their countries of birth is estimated to be in the area of 200 million (191 million) or three per cent of the global population, with women constituting almost half of all international migrants. As the UN conference noted, people migrate because of poverty, conflict, human rights violations, poor governance or lack of employment, and most recently due to environmental/health concerns (just this morning there was a news report that senior business executives are currently quitting Hong Kong due to the problem of air pollution and other environmental concerns). Therefore it is not surprising that reports from the UN Population Division, show that six out of every 10 international migrants live in developed countries. Among these countries, one in every three migrants lives in Europe and about one in every four lives in North America.
Complex relationships between poverty and social exclusion act as push factors while ageing populations and employment opportunities, linked to lower birth rates in the metropoles are among the pull factors that serve to encourage migration. Young people who migrate to gain access to educational opportunities, upon completion of their studies may seek or find employment in the host country, leading to the concomitant loss of skills for their country of origin. The impact of economic globalisation, which has exacerbated the inequalities between nations and within nation-states, has made migration an even more attractive option, almost in fact an economic necessity for many. Thus, it is not envisaged that the rate of migration would decline in the foreseeable future.
The large majority of migrants are lawful residents making meaningful contributions to their host countries. Despite this, international migration creates political, economic, and social tensions in the countries of destination as evidenced in recent times by the events in Europe and in the United States.
The phenomenon of Migration is multidimensional and it cannot easily be separated from the more typical internationally current issues such as market access, trade imbalances, debt sustainability, human security and social justice. It has historically been evident that the pace of sustainable development in both receiving and source countries can be influenced by migration flows. Migration has also carried with it implications for human rights and today can impact on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The major trends in migration generally exhibit increased demand for both high and low skilled migrant labour; feminisation of migration, tendency to high levels of exploitation and lack of respect for basic human rights and dignity including manifestations of discrimination, violence and xenophobic hostility; trafficking and brain drain.
Indeed in Vienna, the human rights concerns were central to the statement in the EU/LAC Declaration and many of those who contributed to the UN Dialogue, noted that vulnerable migrant groups such as women and children, needed special protection. In noting the high incidence of female migration, the UN Dialogue acknowledged that the risk factor was higher for women than men particularly in respect of their exposure to exploitation and abuse.
This ugly side of migration therefore has not escaped the attention of the global community and both conferences – the EU/LAC and the UN – have committed to the fight against human trafficking with particular concern expressed over the fate of women and children.
Regional Migration Internal and External Ladies and Gentlemen, given the international landscape, what about our Region? There will be hardly any argument against the fact that this Region is one of migrant peoples. The Europeans came and settled, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade uprooted the Africans from their homeland, the invidious system of indentureship continued this process with the East Indians, Portuguese, Javanese and Chinese. The Middle Easterners fled from a mixture of turmoil and economic hardship and they all landed on these shores.
But over the last fifty years the Caribbean, with a present population of approximately 39 million (UNFPA, 2006), has lost more than five million people (ECLAC, 2005) to migration and has one of the highest net migration rates worldwide with wide variations within the Region.
In the Caribbean, migration is motivated primarily by economic conditions – an expression of the individual’s will for an improvement in one’s economic situation and for a better quality of life. This motivation has significant social and economic implications for the receiving country. It is the highly skilled and educated in search of higher wages and better employment opportunities and conditions that are on the move worldwide. The majority of the migrants in the most productive age group, 20-45, generally have a high level of education.
According to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study, almost all of the Caribbean countries are among the top 20 countries in the world with the highest tertiary educated emigration (out migration) rates. Indeed another recent study showed, for example, that in the last five years alone 80 percent of Guyana’s tertiary educated citizens have migrated. The majority of Caribbean countries have lost more than 50 per cent of their labour force in the tertiary segment and more than 30 per cent in the secondary education segment.
This virtual exodus of valuable professional skills compromises the attainment of the region’s broader development goals. For example, the Caribbean is losing approximately 400 nurses per annum through out-migration to the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States at the rate of roughly 1:2:10 (ECLAC, 2006). The gravity of this situation is underscored by the costs associated with that kind of migration, that is, the cost of training of these migrants in their home countries, as well as the resulting setback to the health services of the Region.
Governments in countries such as Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago spend more per capita on tertiary education than they do on primary and secondary education. The cost of nurse training in the Region is estimated to be between US$15 to US$20 million per annum and thus their migration represents a significant transfer of resources from the Region to those beneficiary migrant receiving countries (ECLAC, 2005). To counter the detrimental effects of this and other similar instances, such as teachers, there are several efforts being made to address these labour deficiencies, through scaling-up of training to support intra and extra- regional demands and temporary migration schemes.
But really, as the former Prime Minister of Jamaica the Most Honourable Percival Patterson said in a lecture during the series to mark the 30th Anniversary of CARICOM in 2003: “We will only stem the tide, when we expand our economies, increase professional and job opportunities and accentuate social mobility fast enough to satisfy the growing expectations of our people.”
Also the time has come, if not long past, when the region’s governments must put squarely on the table the principle that foreign governments be made to pay for the capital cost of training these professionals they now freely recruit from developing countries.
Diaspora and Remittances As a result of the continuous migration from the region, a formidable, (certainly in terms of numbers) Caribbean diaspora has evolved, primarily located in North America and in the former colonising countries of the United Kingdom, France, and The Netherlands. This diaspora also includes apart from the migrants, foreign-born persons with one or both parents of Caribbean origin.
One positive side of this migration to the receiving countries was recently highlighted when the President of the United States proclaimed June 2006 as Caribbean-American Heritage Month “in recognition of the outstanding contribution of the Caribbean diaspora to American society”. President George Bush in his proclamation acknowledged that “for centuries, Caribbean Americans have enriched our society and added to the strength of America.” And he was not speaking only of the first Secretary of the US Treasury, Alexander Hamilton of Nevisian birth or of recent Secretary of State Colin Powell of Jamaican descent.
The Caribbean diaspora also plays a vital role in improving the quality of life in the source countries particularly through remittances which are generally transferred to low and middle income families. It is estimated that about 40 per cent of Caribbean rural households derive significant financial support from relatives abroad. United States Member of the House of Representatives Mr Charles Ranghel put the annual figure of remittances to the Caribbean at US $1.6 billion during a debate in the House on the resolution designating Caribbean-American Heritage Month. Such remittance is no pittance!
The Caribbean countries rank among the top 30 countries in the world with the highest remittance flows as a percentage of GDP. The total international remittances are estimated to stand at US $226 billion according to the UN Population Division (2006). Migrants from developing countries sent some US$167 billion in remittances to family and friends at home (Migrants and development: a new era Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie, 2006).
Remittance flows now exceed both Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, as well as Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the Region as a whole. Remittances, which are private sources of income that contribute to mitigating poverty, should however not be considered a substitute, even in part, for Overseas Development Aid.
Despite the impact of remittances at the macro level, it is clear, according to a report from IMF (2006), that the total losses due to skilled emigration far outweigh the recorded remittances for the Caribbean Region on average, and for almost all the individual Caribbean countries.
Migration and CSME Ladies and gentlemen, the search for better economic opportunities for many people within the Region, often commenced intra-regionally. This is evident by the fact that the absolute number of foreign-born nationals originating from the Caribbean in another Caribbean country has steadily increased in the last two decades. Based upon available data from 2000, about three percent of the Caribbean population can be considered intra-regional migrants. This varies generally from country to country, with the lowest percentage of Caribbean immigrants found in Jamaica and Guyana and the highest proportions reported in Antigua and Barbuda and the CARICOM Associate Members. The majority of migrants originate from Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Member Countries and Suriname.
It is expected, indeed hoped, that intra-regional migration, will be on the rise as the Caribbean Community, in an attempt to create a more viable economy and society, in the face of globalisation, establishes the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The realisation of this hope lies in large measure with an amelioration of all its attendant administrative woes.
Today, this expectation is particularly relevant to twelve of the fifteen CARICOM Member States which form the Single Market and who are expected by 2008 to be included within the framework of the Single Economy. (The Bahamas, Haiti and Montserrat are not yet a part) It is the elements of the Single Market, especially Articles 45 and 46 of the Revised Treaty, that form the framework within which migration will take place within the CSME. I have little doubt that this will be one of the positive factors in making the CSME arrangements redound to the benefit of the population.
To be specific, the Member States have committed themselves to the “goal of free movement of their nationals within the Community.” As a first step towards achieving this goal, Member States have opted to proceed on a phased basis to accord to Community nationals the right to seek employment (work without a work permit) in any Member State. The first categories of nationals to have benefited from this provision are university graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes and musicians. At the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in July this year in St Kitts and Nevis, the Conference agreed to expand the categories of skilled persons eligible for free movement within the Community to include nurses and teachers who were not already covered as holders of university degrees.
Besides these categories, the Revised Treaty also grants non-wage earning CARICOM nationals, both juridical and natural persons, the right to move freely in the CSME space to maximise economic opportunities. This is enshrined through the provisions in the Revised Treaty (Articles 34 and 37) which allow the right of establishment, that is, the right to move and establish enterprises in another Member State to produce goods and to provide services. This movement from discretionary migration to full implementation of the Treaty provisions, an important part of the changing economic face of the region is a work in progress.
One of the expected benefits of these measures is the enticement of members of the diaspora to return to their Caribbean roots and assist in the development of the Region. Whereas previously, the labour market or the commercial space was limited to one’s country, CARICOM nationals now have 12 Member States to choose from, should they wish to return with their skills or to make an investment. In particular, students studying abroad, on graduating, can now return to work in the Region as of right and not just in their country of origin. And we will welcome them all.
Furthermore, measures are being put in place to ensure that under the CSME, there will be the right to equal treatment in respect of investment and working conditions as it relates to the particular Member State. Article 7 of the Revised Treaty states, inter alia, that: “any discrimination on grounds of nationality only shall be prohibited.” A CARICOM national who decides to invest or work in another Member State will therefore be entitled to enjoy the same rights and conditions as those given to nationals.
The right to settle in another Member State will extend to the spouse and children of eligible categories. However, the rights and benefits to which spouses and dependents are entitled- the so-called contingent rights – are under consideration as directed by Article 239 of the Revised Treaty which requires the Member States to “elaborate a protocol” relating to those rights among others.
To facilitate the general process of intra-regional migration, CARICOM has agreed on and has implemented an Agreement on Social Security to provide for such benefits as pensions and national insurance to be transferable.
The management of migration is a critical factor in the operation and success of the CSME. The free movement of skills is designed to ensure that skilled labour responds to demands within the market area. However, it brings with it certain challenges for the receiving state including being able to absorb the migrants, taking into account the demands on their social services and infrastructure. It therefore requires us to work towards a sufficiently wide distribution of opportunity that would allow for an equitable dispersal of skills and benefits.
Conclusion Every issue that has been put before you tonight directly involves the most important resource we have in our Caribbean community – namely its people. It is our human resources that will both drive development and benefit from it. The search for a better quality of life is rooted in the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for us and our families – no matter where life leads us.
In closing, ladies and gentlemen, let me once again thank my hosts for the opportunity to have expressed the aforementioned thoughts with you this evening on a matter that is significant, topical and relevant globally and regionally. Finally let me congratulate once again the winners who so adroitly addressed the topic of Migration and Development. May they be beacons to their peers as advocates of the CSME and exemplars as beneficiaries thereof.
I thank you.