An Assessment of the Emigration of Highly Skilled Workers from Jamaica

• Author: Pauline Knight, Easton Williams and Steven Kerr
• Pages: 302-314

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FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN CARIBBEAN MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

IntroductionIntroduction

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

The emigration of educated/trained workers has traditionally been

considered a loss for the source country because of several factors. These

include: the ‘drain’ from the country of the needed human capital; the

foregone returns on the resources invested in these workers; the net welfare

reduction for the workers left behind due to changes in labour supply and

wages; and the lost positive externality effects which highly-skilled workers

usually contribute to a society.

Recently, however, much attention is being paid to other considerations

which may mitigate or even outweigh the emigration losses which source

countries bear. Chief among these are the remittances which have grown

considerably within the last decade and now constitute a large proportion

of the Gross Domestic Product of many Third World countries.

Additionally, it is argued that because of migration prospects, human capital

formation is heightened in source countries thus contributing positively

to economic performance.1 Finally, beneficial feedback effects can be

pinpointed, return migration after the acquisition of experience and

knowledge abroad, and migrants’ creation of business-related networks

between recipient and source countries that serve to enhance trade and

investment levels. Note has also been taken of the phenomenon of social

remittances, which has both negative and positive connotations as it

includes ideas, values, beliefs, practices, identities and social capital

transmitted through the migration circuit from one country to another.2

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EMIGRATION OF

HIGHLY SKILLED WORKERS FROM JAMAICA

PAULINE KNIGHT, EASTON WILLIAMS AND STEVEN KERR

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