The missing piece of the Economic Development Puzzle ?
On April 1st 2006, the Jamaican Diaspora (UK) Movement staged its first conference in the UK, held in Birmingham, with an estimated audience of over five hundred people drawn from across the Jamaican UK community. There were high level speakers from Jamaica and several famous local “sons and daughters” of Jamaica (resident in the UK) contributed with speeches at this auspicious occasion. These are exciting times and one can sense a momentum building. But what has brought this level of interest about, what are the objectives – indeed possibilities - and where is it all leading to?
There was a time when economic development in the Caribbean was expressed solely in terms of industrialisation, manufacture for export, capital intensive infrastructure projects, export competitiveness, inward investment, GDP growth and so on. Governments of newly independent nations since the 1960’s sought to develop their country’s economies along these lines with aid and loans from various international organisations, private sector banks and assistance from other countries. One can debate how successful or not these initiatives have been but what is now clear is that other, more informal and “grass-roots”, economic activity was simultaneously taking seed with Caribbean peoples across international boundaries. Out of sight but bursting forward in the 21st century - Remittances!!
REMITTANCES Now in full blossom for all to see, the size of these remittances is the “elephant in the room” when discussing foreign exchange “earnings”, particularly for countries such as Jamaica and Guyana. Remittances are a financial dividend of the emigration sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of citizens over recent decades. Remittances – formal and informal - have been a long established international activity linked to migration and trade. One suspects that most islands in the Caribbean have and are benefiting from their overseas émigrés to various countries in a similar fashion. However in Jamaica’s case it is now the primary source of foreign exchange at over US$1 billion in cash per year.
Remittances are important not only because they are potentially large in dollar terms. They also represent an injection of liquid cash from overseas sources directly into poorer and rural communities for beneficiaries, impacting lives on a personal level. But the truth is we do not really know what these funds are used for nor do we know who sends them. Anecdotally one hears of money being sent to help immediate or distant family, to pay for school fees and medical bills, to build or extend houses, as being pension funds for returnees etc. If we knew why remittances are being sent and what they are used for then we can know what to expect in future years. Is this a phenomenon with a natural shelf-life, has it peaked in size, is it a sign of greater things to come?
Whatever the case, Remittances are undoubtedly the principal factor for the growing formal interest in the Diasporan communities.
DIASPORAN COMMUNITIES
Migration has been a feature of human existence from time immemorial and the Caribbean has been no exception. Hundreds of years of, for the most part, forced immigration into the Caribbean has been followed by substantial emigrations over the last hundred years or so. Inter-island migrations and intra-regional regional migration has been a feature of this social interaction. However the migration now providing visible economic impact was the movement of Caribbean people to the USA, Canada and the former “mother country” England in the mid-to-late twentieth century.
The motivations behind these substantial movements were diverse and the profile of the typical emigrant was quite distinct for each exodus to the respective destination. Take the migration in the 1950’s and 1960’s from Jamaica to the UK for instance. This was unprecedented in scale and by invitation of Her Majesty’s Government. The volunteers were not poor, neither were they particularly privileged but they were risk-takers at pursuing economic benefit. However most arrivals in the UK from the Caribbean were destined to work – and there was plenty of that available after two World Wars – for the Public Sector. Their employers included the National Health Service, the national transport sector, the national postal service and emerging telecommunications industry, and so on. Ironically the same UK Public Sector that the Caribbean immigrants so loyally served has failed many of their descendents (and themselves) in certain areas of education, social welfare, policing and even health service.
MIGRATION IN CONTEXT
This “public sector” context had an important bearing on the destiny of their progeny into the second generation both in terms of the expectations of the wider UK public and in terms of where they could find opportunity to pursue employment or indeed self-employment.
The other important aspect of the emigration to the UK was when it occurred in the life story of the nation states in the Caribbean. The countries were either still British colonies - and therefore the migrants were technically British subjects - or the migrants were leaving a newly independent country which was only then embarking on shaping a national identity. Their identity, as that of the country they were leaving, was in transition.
Now as many of these migrants, most of who stayed on in Britain, have reached retirement age eyes are now turning to focus, perhaps belatedly, on their descendents in the Diaspora. What are the second generation’s motivations in life, their disposition towards the land of their father’s (or mother’s) birth and how do they identify themselves? This is the crux of the matter when it comes to expectations the Caribbean region can have of these individuals as they approach economic maturity themselves.
As is perfectly natural these second and third generation descendents of Caribbean immigrants are a fusion of the two cultures. Some are literally so – being principally of a Caribbean father and British mother - and others not physically evident at being “hybrids” but most certainly socially so – even with a Caribbean father and mother. In the case of the former there are over 230,000 people of mixed Caribbean heritage in the UK at the last Census in 2001. Additionally, for the numbers of the second and third generation one can “guestimate” that of the 560,000 who in 2001 classified themselves as Black British Caribbean about 400,000 of these are second and third generation.
CARIBBEAN BRITISH IDENTITY
Migration patterns between the UK and the Caribbean are shown in Figure 1 below.
This illustrates that official migration from the Caribbean to the UK is nominal at 5,000 people per year with a slightly upward trend over the last decade to 2003. Correspondingly, “returnees” leaving the UK for the Caribbean region is declining slightly to average about 2,000 people per year.
So, as we in the region know, there is insubstantial migration from the Caribbean to the UK. Secondly the aging first generation is not returning to live in the region in any substantial numbers. There is instead a growing trend of increased visits and duration of visits by such people which will bring some economic benefit to the region (and is good news for the airlines); perhaps not as much though had they returned to live in the Caribbean bringing their hard earned UK pension benefits with them. The economic impact of the first generation will however peak and come to an end within the next 10-20 years as they become unable to travel any more or reach a higher destination!
With no major influx of Caribbean peoples into the UK likely in the near term, the “Caribbean British” identity foundation is set and hence the critical importance of the second generation Caribbean diaspora. Who are they, how do they see themselves, do they have strong affinity with the Caribbean Region? Importantly the Caribbean British identity consists of both the “Black Caribbean British” as well as the “Mixed Caribbean British” heritage descendents (both recent UK Census terminology).
However if the original emigrants for the Caribbean in the mid-twentieth century were experiencing identity in transition, then the identity of the “Caribbean British” is truly nascent. And it so happens that the interest certain Caribbean Governments are showing in their Diaspora currently coincides with a growing interest by the UK Government in those same said people.
And with good reason!!
BEYOND REMITTANCES?
We in Britain are witnessing the increasing shift towards business and self-employment in the second and third generation in the Caribbean British community – particularly women. The Caribbean Food Zone at the International Food Exchange 2003 attracted considerable interest and highlighted the potential contribution of Caribbean culture to the UK economy – food just being one aspect of that. Locally owned Caribbean restaurants – like Mr Jerk and Caribbean Scene are popping up all over London.
In my next article I will explore the scale of this economic contribution and present the hypothesis that remittances are indeed potentially just the “tip of the iceberg”. With appropriate strategies the Caribbean region can exploit a multiplier effect of moving this, principally, one-to-one donation activity into significant economic impact through business sector and trade development, joint ventures and supply chains.
However to successfully leverage of our global human capital of peoples, cultures, creativities we will require a holistic and sensitized approach – truly understanding the context and concerns of all the components of our Diaspora and ensuring that the Caribbean regional mindset is globally attuned.
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This article may not be reproduced or copied without prior consent of the author, Vernon Barrett.
The term “Caribbean” is particularly relevant as the metropolises of London and other cities in the UK where the first immigrants settled have facilitated the emergence of a Caribbean collective spirit through substantial inter-mingling of these peoples.
