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Stay: Migration and the Caribbean 
Liane Chance 

 
Liane Chance was born in Georgetown, Guyana and migrated to Barbados at age 11 

and Toronto, Canada at 13. She has completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts at the 

University of Toronto, with a double major in History and Equity Studies. Liane has a 

particular interest in the educational experience of young Caribbean immigrants in 

Toronto and hopes to commence graduate studies related to the subject in the future. 

 
Twentieth and twenty first century migration patterns have 

seen a large scale emigration from many Caribbean countries into 
Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.  This dispersion 
and settlement of Caribbean people into highly industrial parts of the 
world can be long-term, permanent or temporary. The primary 
motive for Caribbean migration has been the intent to improve 
economic circumstances, therefore migration out of the region 
persists when the perception of opportunities abroad outweigh the 
real opportunities at home.1 Migration rates from the Caribbean 
remain high and are steadily rising which indicates that the 
crumbling economic and social structures which sustain such rates 
continue to degrade.2 As a result, Caribbean countries continue to 
experience the loss of highly skilled men and women to more 
industrialized parts of the world. Therefore, the inability or failure to 
stem heavy outflows of labour hinders Caribbean development.3 
Recent trends have seen governments attempt to harness the 
financial wealth of their diasporas with the hope that the large 
number of residents abroad can set into motion and sustain a series 
of development initiatives.4 In Jamaica, such strategies have 
involved tapping into the community abroad as well as encouraging 
emigration to create a larger capital remitting base.5 However, the 
framework for Jamaican diasporic development, which Patsy Lewis 

                                                           
1 Ransford W. Palmer, “Caribbean Development and the Migration Imperative,” 

in In Search of a Better Life: Perspectives on Migration from the Caribbean ed. 

Ransford W. Palmer (New York, Connecticut, London: Praeger, 1990), 6 
2 Barbara J. Merz, “Diasporic Engagement in the Caribbean,” in Diasporas and 

Development ed. Barbara J. Merz et al. (Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard 

University Press, 2007), 190 
3 Palmer, 15 
4 Merz, 204-211 
5 Patsy Lewis, “Training Jamaicans for Export: A viable development strategy?” 

Unpublished Paper. (2003), 165 



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calls “training-for-export,” is problematic. To achieve any positive 
benefits for the Caribbean, people need to remain in the region. The 
solution seems simple but its implementation involves the 
cooperation and integration of elements of the Caribbean population 
both within the region and abroad. Development initiatives which 
involve or are spearheaded by the diaspora must follow a structured 
and logical plan. Encouraging migration out of the region is 
counterproductive, therefore the Caribbean must think regionally, 
rather than nationally, to implement tactics to improve the 
economic, social and political factors which push people out. Thirdly, 
the place of skilled return migrants must be examined. 

 
Caribbean governments have known about the problem of 

emigration since the 1960s. The United Kingdom had been the 
traditional recipient of Caribbean migrants from 1948, but political 
shifts in Britain restricted Caribbean migration in the 1960s. As high 
unemployment and slow development plagued newly independent 
governments they encouraged the migration of unskilled labour to 
Canada and the United States, countries that had liberalized their 
immigration laws.6 The benefits of this strategy were lower 
unemployment levels, social stability, population control due to 
lower birth rates and remittances from the receiving countries to 
provide benefits for young and older family members.7 As the 
Caribbean moved into the latter decades of the 20th century and the 
first years of the 21st, migration and the attitudes toward the trend 
have been characterized by much continuity and little change.  

 
Between 1965, when immigration first began to increase, 

and 2000, the Caribbean region had seen over 12% of its labour force 
migrate to more developed countries such as the United States and 
Canada.8 Countries such as Jamaica and Guyana experienced far 
higher rates of emigration with Jamaica losing 85% of its educated 
labour force in the same period.9 Understanding that migration is an 
intrinsic and sustained Caribbean character trait and also aware of 
the value of remittances sent back by residents working and living 

                                                           
6 Ralph Henry and Kim Johnson, “Migration, Manpower, and Underdevelopment 

of the Commonwealth Caribbean,” in Migration and Development in the 

Caribbean: The Unexplored Connection ed. Robert A. Pastor (Boulder, Colorado: 

Westview Press Inc, 1985), 279. 
7 Henry, 279 
8 Lewis, 166 
9 Patsy Lewis, 166 



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abroad, Caribbean governments have entertained the idea of making 
migration work to their advantage.10 However, the present 
framework for the distribution of remittances contributes to unequal 
benefits for residents of the Caribbean. Development strategies 
rooted in the diaspora must operate within an equitable framework.  

 
Compared to the Anglophone Caribbean, migration in Cuba 

had long been an instrument of national policy and was relied upon 
to accumulate capital for the state and also to create blocs of 
influence in other parts of the world.11 However, in Cuba government 
sanctioned migration is a controlled policy which eventually results 
in the repatriation of skilled labour.12 Recent trends attributed to 
“political and geo-strategic shifts” in the “international trading 
environment,” have had a hand in altering the way Caribbean 
governments have perceived emigration.13 Lewis’ observation of the 
Jamaican government’s view of migration places it in a similar 
framework to that which Robert Pastor and Rosemarie Rogers 
identified as Cuba’s migration policy. In Lewis’ analysis emigration 
was considered beyond its obvious effects of draining labour and 
enterprise from the country and reworked by the government to see 
the outflow of people from the country as a “potential tool.”14 Lewis’ 
work did not identify a governmental strategy for the repatriation of 
labour but it did posit the remittance of capital from educated 
migrants as a salient strategy to bring foreign capital into the 
country. However, if diasporas are to be utilized as a development 
strategy the capital sent back must flow in ways to benefit the entire 
country.  

 
Currently, remittances, other than those sent by regulated 

temporary workers, go directly to the intended recipient, there is no 
benefit to the country as a whole because the capital is used to better 

                                                           
10 Robert Pastor and Rosemarie Rogers, “Using Migration to Enhance Economic 

Development in the Caribbean: Three Sets of Proposals,” in Migration and 

Development in the Caribbean: The Unexplored Connection ed. Robert A. Pastor 

(Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press Inc, 1985), 321; Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, 

Caribbean Migration (Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago: University of the 

West Indies Press, 2002), 160 
11 Pastor, 321 
12 Pastor, 321 
13 Lewis, 169 
14 Lewis, 169 



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the circumstances of that recipient.15 Also important is the fact that 
remittances can serve to reduce governmental responsibility to 
citizens’ welfare because beneficiaries may accrue enough capital to 
bypass public services in preference of private ones.16 They can also 
contribute to further emigration from the receiving country as it 
provides improved access to education.  Generally, remittances are 
unequally accessed by receiving populations - therefore its overall 
poverty reducing effects are questionable if the current framework 
continues because the practice has a high number of individual 
beneficiaries.17  

 
Recent tabulations of remittances flowing through official 

avenues have indicated that the countries in the Caribbean receive 
anywhere from 100 million to 1.4 billion dollars in remittances every 
year.18 The actual amount of capital, however, is rarely ever the 
amount received by the recipient. According to research done on the 
topic of fair value, a transaction can cost up to 25% of the amount 
being sent due to factors such as commissions, exchange rates and 
transaction fees.19 In their articles, Robert Pastor, Rosemarie Rogers 
and Wilbert Bascom suggest that the Caribbean region establish 
remittance banks to take over the position of money transmission 
businesses.20 This would have the effect of actually giving Caribbean 
governments a certain amount of capital earned from transmitting 
remittances at a better and more competitive rate. The recipients 
would continue to receive money from their relatives while 
governments would have the ability to take the capital accrued and 
reinvest it into development schemes as well as ease balance of 

                                                           
15 Wilbert O. Bascom, “Remittance Inflows and Economic Development in 

Selected Anglophone Caribbean Countries,” in Migration, Remittances and Small 

Business Development ed. Sergio Diaz-Briquets et al. (Colorado: Westview Press 

Inc., 1991), 77 
16 Merz, 206 
17 Admos Chimhowu et al, “The Socioeconomic Impact of Remittances on 

Poverty Reduction,” in Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects 

ed. Samuel Munzele Maimbo et al (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005), 94-95 
18 Merz, 190 
19 Norbert Bielefeld and Antonique Koning, “International Remittances: 

Delivering Fair Value,” in Remittances: Development Impact and Future 

Prospects ed. Samuel Munzele Maimbo et al. (Washington, DC: World Bank, 

2005), 194 
20 Bascom, 90-91; Pastor, 333-336. 



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payment debts in the region.21 Ultimately, a Caribbean remittance 
bank would encourage the development of the country or region by 
stimulating the economy enough to provide incentive for labour to 
remain or return to the country. 

 
The strategy Patsy Lewis identified in her essay was that of 

“training-for-export” programs. As mentioned above, the Jamaican 
government as with others in the region does not infringe on the 
rights of their people to migrate but the result has been that the 
country has long suffered with the emigration of its skilled labour.22 
It must also be noted that the type of emigrating labour is subject to 
a hierarchy where highly skilled labour is considered intrinsic to 
development, while cheaper labour emigration was encouraged to 
ease unemployment rates.23 In a strategy which prioritized Elizabeth 
Thomas-Hope’s theory that migration builds and recreates the 
Caribbean, the Jamaican government “advocated” its “training for 
export” strategy.24 The idea was to invest in the training of nurses 
and teachers with the intent that eventually these women, and to a 
lesser extent men, would migrate abroad and remit capital to the 
sending country, Jamaica.25 However, Lewis was hard-pressed to 
find the wisdom in this strategy, especially since the statistics 
indicate that Caribbean governments spend far more on education 
than they recover from remitted capital.26 “Training for export” and 
other development strategies which incorporated education or 
training turned out to benefit the economy of the receiving country 
while the sending Caribbean country struggled to cope with the loss 
of labour and a dubious return on investment.27 The strategy of 

                                                           
21 Pastor, 334-335; Michele Reis, “The Modern to Late Period in the Caribbean 

Diaspora,” in Caribbean Transnationalism: Migration, Pluralization and Social 

Cohesion ed. Ruben Gowricharn. (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2006), 52 
22 Patricia Y. Anderson, “Migration and Development in Jamaica,” in Migration 

and Development in the Caribbean: The Unexplored Connection ed. Robert A. 

Pastor (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press Inc, 1985), 120. 
23 Anderson, 121 
24 Thomas-Hope, Caribbean Migration, 160 
25 Lewis, 175 
26 Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, “Return Migration and Its Implications for Caribbean 

Development,” in in Migration and Development in the Caribbean: The 

Unexplored Connection ed. Robert A. Pastor (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press 

Inc, 1985), 167; Lewis, 169. 
27 Ralph Henry and Kim Johnson, “Migration, Manpower and the 

Underdevelopment of the Commonwealth Caribbean,” in Migration and 



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“training for development” rings counterproductive to any strategy 
that is to empower the Caribbean region since skilled labour is 
integral to the development of the region. The issue remains 
providing skilled Caribbean people with enough incentive to remain 
in the region. 

 
The concept of the brain drain has long accompanied 

discourses on Caribbean emigration. The drain has been the result of 
unfavourable economic climates and it has also contributed to this 
effect. Instead of focusing on creating incentives to return, countries 
such as Jamaica, have encouraged labour to leave because of the 
purported level of remittances their absence brings.28 Caribbean 
countries uphold their citizen’s right to migrate freely but have 
historically oriented migration outside the region rather than taking 
an active role to foster intraregional migration. As an alternative to 
sending trained individuals outside of the region, Lewis examined 
propositions to allow the free movement of these individuals from 
country to country.29 Intraregional migration of nurses and teachers 
would have the effect of keeping labour within the region by 
deploying these men and women to countries which experienced 
chronic shortage of teachers and nurses.30  

 
Palmer also views intraregional migration as a plausible and 

desirable alternative to flows outside of the region. He argues that 
the Caribbean as a region needs to expand and diversify its 
productive industries and implement a “common market agreement” 
which does not restrict labour flows.31 In short, Caribbean countries 
need to form a structured economic bloc to move beyond single 
market economies in order for the region to decrease its vulnerability 
to the vagaries of the economic market.32 Palmer’s prescriptions are 
not new ideas, as the idea of integration and diversified economies 
has been debated and attempted in the region on previous occasions, 
the most recent incarnation being the formation of CARICOM.33 

                                                                                                                    
Development in the Caribbean: The Unexplored Connection ed. Robert A. Pastor 

(Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press Inc, 1985), 281 
28 Lewis, 169 
29 Lewis, 178 
30 Lewis, 178 
31 Palmer, 13-14 
32 Palmer, 14 
33 Peter Wickman, “Factors in the Integration and Disintegration of the 

Caribbean,” in Introduction to Caribbean Politics ed Cynthia Barrow-Giles, (Ian 

Randle Publishers, 2002.) 



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Freedom of movement policies were being considered in the early 
1990s but were waylaid by countries that feared being overrun by 
migrants who wished to access the better economic conditions of 
that society.34 The saliency of integration as a way to retain migrants 
in the region is impossible to ignore, and the re-examination of the 
strategy by Caribbean governments bodes well for the development 
of the region’s economy for the purposes of retaining labour.  

 
In her article on the developmental impacts of return 

migration on the Caribbean, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope surmises that it 
is difficult to tabulate the effect of the return migrant on the 
development of his or her country. Although the return may involve 
the influx of foreign capital, talent and skilled labour, Thomas-Hope 
argues that foreign lifestyles and products also return. This has the 
effect of stimulating the consumption of foreign products because 
the orientation of Caribbean households to foreign markets is 
sustained.35 Thomas-Hope also argues that the short-term effects of 
return migration, which include the investment of capital into 
ventures such as housing or short-term participation in the labour 
force, often masquerade as positive indicators of development.36 

 
 Thomas-Hope’s pessimistic analysis ignores the other side 

of the return movement however, namely the growing amount of 
people whose intentions to return are focused entirely on the 
development of the region. In their article on return migration to 
Grenada, Joseph Rodman and Dennis Conway highlight the 
nostalgic and nationalistic factors which propel migrants settled 
abroad to return.37 Many of these migrants have been educated 
abroad and seek to impart their skills to effect development within 
their countries.38 Therefore it follows that the Caribbean region must 
provide a framework which supports return migrants who have 
either business or education initiatives which serve to improve the 
region by creating employment or providing specialized skills to the 
labour force.  

                                                           
34 Wickman, 246 
35 Thomas-Hope, “Return Migration,”172 
36 Thomas-Hope, “Return Migration,” 172 
37 Dennis Conway and Joseph Rodman, “The Nexus and the Family Tree: Return 

Migration to Grenada and Transnationalism in Context,” in The Experience of 

Return Migration: Caribbean ed. Robert B. Potter et al. (Aldershot, England, 

Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, 2005), 101 
38 Conway, 101 



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Migration created the Caribbean and migration recreates 
the Caribbean.39 It is the constant force that the region cannot 
ignore, however it should not be viewed as a solution to socio-
economic issues in the Caribbean. Although not addressed in the 
above analysis, migration accounts for the weakening of family 
structures as migrants sacrifice familial ties to provide monetary 
support for spouses, parents and children back home. Some 
migrants also face alienation, racism and prejudice as they navigate 
the maze of a foreign society. Migration will always occur but it is 
imperative that the region implement more insular techniques to 
address its weaknesses and rely upon Caribbean people, ideas and 
initiatives to create better opportunities for future generations and 
also to retain and regain its people.  

 

                                                           
39 Thomas-Hope, Caribbean Migration, 160 




