Caribbean Migration in the Neoliberal Era: Critical Policy Considerations

• Author: Peter Jordens
• Pages: 366-384

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FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN CARIBBEAN MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

IntroductionIntroduction

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

International migration has always been a central factor in the development

of the Caribbean region. From the times of the Ciboneys, Arawaks and

Caribs, people in every part of the Caribbean, from all ethnic, class, gender

and age groups, have been ‘on the move’ into, within and out of the region.

For good reasons the modern, post-1492 Caribbean has been called an

‘internationalized’ region, literally created by political, economic and

demographic forces of an international nature (Edmondson 1974).

Combinations of economic, political, ideological and cultural factors have

historically conditioned transnational migration in the Caribbean context;1

free, encouraged, strongly persuaded and forced forms of migration could

be distinguished.

In the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century, Caribbean

migration is predominantly directed out of the region toward North

America and Western Europe, although intra-regional migration is also a

significant and growing phenomenon. The current waves of emigration

may be attributed in large part to the economic stagnation, income

inequality and poverty resulting from the economic policies implemented

in the region since the 1980s, initially referred to as structural adjustment

and now known as neoliberalism. Neoliberal policies, promoted by the

Caribbean Migration

in the Neoliberal Era:

Critical Policy Considerations

PETER JORDENS

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2121

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CARIBBEAN MIGRATION IN THE NEOLIBERAL ERA

major capitalist economies and the multilateral institutions (International

Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Organization), are

basically aimed at reducing the role of the state in the economy and opening

the way for markets and private enterprise. The regional record shows that

these policies by and large have failed miserably at producing economic

growth and social development.2 Instead they have increased the pressure

on emigration as an adaptive strategy for those adversely affected (Portes

2003; Bohórquez and Spronk 2004).

The flow of Caribbean nationals out of the region has been aided by

aggressive transnational recruiting strategies on the part of employers in

the countries of the North, targeted in particular at Caribbean nurses,

teachers and information-technology experts, to answer economic expansion

combined with low population growth and aging populations in the North.

Transnational labour recruitment and migration have been more

beneficial to the economies of the North than to those of the South.

Caribbean source countries are confronted with significant brain drain,

growing local skills gaps, unbalanced labour markets, and reduced

competitiveness. Meanwhile, the emigration of people of working age and

the feminization of Caribbean emigration (Cortés Castellanos 2005) are

also having an adverse effect on the social fabric of Caribbean societies.3

Overall, transnational emigration in the current period has tended to

reinforce the traditional global hierarchy of nation-states and the historical

dependence of Caribbean countries on the North.

PurposePurpose

PurposePurpose

Purpose

This chapter situates Caribbean migration since the 1990s explicitly in

the era of neoliberalism and globalization. While the countries and

institutions of the North continue to proclaim the presumed virtues of

economic neoliberalism and capitalist globalization, there is a simultaneous

attempt on the part of these countries to problematise the free international

movement of people and to control and contain migration. This chapter

critically examines, from a Caribbean perspective, the tensions between

these two tendencies, following upon an analysis of the dominant trends