Involuntary and Coerced Migration: 'Deportees' coming 'Homeward': NGOs as Actors in Reintegration Policy in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic

• Author: Suzette Martin-Johnson
• Pages: 213-234

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INVOLUNTARY AND COERCED MIGRATION

IntroductionIntroduction

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

This chapter is set within the context of government policy responses

to deportation from the United States to the Caribbean over the

last decade, with a particular focus on Jamaica and the Dominican

Republic. Enquiries soon revealed that government policy responses in

both countries had been slow, with an overall attempt to absorb deportees

into the normal system. It also became apparent that there were a number

of gaps in the governmental approach, as noted by one Jamaican police

officer’s concerned admission that upon deportees’ admission to the country,

it was often left to the discretion of immigration officers or others to assist,

literally out of their own pockets. This provoked another question: beyond

such occasional assistance on a micro-level, and those government agencies

for the indigent which were called upon to assist, who was providing

assistance? Further, was there a coordinated policy on deportation in either

the Dominican Republic or Jamaica in the period 1996-2006?

Deportation is ‘the act of banishing a foreigner from a country, usually

to the country of origin.’ According to Act 2-1994 amending Jamaica’s

Criminal Justice (Administration) Act, a ‘deportation order’ means an order

(however described) made by an authority of a foreign state which requires

the person subject to the order to leave and remain out of that state and

‘deportation’ shall be construed accordingly. The term used to describe

Involuntary and coerced migration:

‘deportees’ coming ‘homeward’

NGOs as Actors in Reintegration Policy in Jamaica

and the Dominican Republic

SUZETTE MARTIN-JOHNSON

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FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN CARIBBEAN MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

these ‘banished’ individuals however, is subject to some debate. In the

course of the research, the researcher was rebuked by some representatives

non-governmental organizations and one government official for referring

to persons deported from abroad as ‘deportees’. Instead, alternative terms

like returnee, involuntary returning resident (IRV) and involuntary

returned resident were suggested. Similarly, civil society entities and

deportees in the Dominican Republic preferred the term repatriado to

deportado.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the contribution of civil society

actors in both the Dominican Republic and Jamaica in policy responses to

deportation from the United States between 1996 and 2006. The main

methodologies used for this comparative study were interviews of government

officials and NGO workers, as well as mini focus groups. Secondary data and

legislative frameworks from both countries were also examined.

It was expected that the period selected would be sufficient and timely

in demonstrating the policy responses of two Caribbean receiving countries.

Interviews and mini focus groups, 1 part of the methodology selected for this

study, have justified the selection of this time period, with participants opining

that deportation became an issue in the Caribbean between the mid-1990s

and 2000, and generally indicating that its growing importance continues

today. Many indicated the phenomenon became particularly marked after

the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York,

when a number of interviewees alluded to an almost indiscriminate

rounding up and subsequent deportation of persons.

While the question of deportation is not a new one for Jamaica or the

Dominican Republic, the passing of the 1996 US Illegal Immigration

Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and its entry into

force in 1997 authorised the US Government to immediately deport

resident aliens convicted of a felony. While Jamaica receives a significant

number of deportees from Canada and the United Kingdom, and both

the Dominican Republic and Jamaica receive deportees from some

Caribbean territories and European countries, it is fair to say that an

overwhelming number of deportees are received from the United States of

America.