Migration and the Small Farming Experience: The Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica

• Author: Amani Ishemo
• Pages: 280-301

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FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN CARIBBEAN MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

IntroductionIntroduction

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

The relationship between population mobility and farming activity is

complex and has been the focus of numerous studies. This chapter

examines this relationship from a small area perspective using the Rio

Grande Valley as a case study. The Rio Grande Valley is an environmentally

sensitive area of Jamaica, characterized by landslides, flooding and heavy

rainfall, which occur regularly during the year. Despite population decline

in many communities and frequently experienced environmental hazards,

farming has survived and continued to expand. Several studies have alluded

to various soil conservation strategies of farmers, small scale farmers’ ability

to adapt to environmental hazards and changing external market demands

for agricultural commodities, as important reasons for the persistence of

small farming in the area. However, a frequently overlooked factor is the

rate of population mobility in sustaining small scale farming in the area.

This study examines the ways in which the process of migration operates

in the Rio Grande Valley and the influence of externally derived cash in

small farming system.

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There is increasing consensus among scholars of migration that there is

a close relationship between migration and socio-economic development,

Migration and the Small Farming

Experience:

The Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica

AMANI ISHEMO

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MIGRATION AND THE SMALL FARMING EXPERIENCE

and in recent years a number of scholars have sought to explain this

connection. The work of Thomas-Hope (1999; 2002), Freeman (2000)

and Conway (2000) are notable in that respect. The significance of

migration to development is also emphasized in the work of Jennings and

Clarke (2005) who notes that Latin America and the Caribbean is the

largest remittance-receiving region. With 9 per cent of the world’s

population, the region receives approximately 32 per cent of the world’s

remittances. According to Lapper (2007), migrant workers sent back more

than $62.3 billion to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean

region in 2006, a rise of 14 per cent on 2005. He notes that for the fourth

successive year, remittances will exceed the combined flows of foreign direct

investments and overseas aid into the region.

Many scholars provide an explanation of both the positive and negative

impacts of international migration and remittances. Some, like Connell

and Conway (2000), note that the development of islands in the Caribbean

region cannot be divorced from the influence of international migration.

There are two perspectives on the impact of migration and remittances.

The first focuses on the negative aspects, such as the unproductive nature

of expenditures, the adjustment difficulties encountered by returning

migrants and the various problems that return migration and remittances

cause. This approach is evident in the work of Shankman (1976), Connell

(1980), Brana-Shutes (1982), Rubenstein (1982), Momsen (1986),

McKee and Tisdell (1988), Mandle (1996) and Duany (2001).

The general negative implications point to the fact that migration and

remittances reinforce the unequal relations between ‘satellites’ and the

‘metropolis’ by keeping poor rural families at low levels of productive

capacity, through the perpetuation of small and economically marginal

farm plots (Shankman 1976; Connell 1980). The consequences of this

negative implication for Caribbean agriculture, as identified by Brana-

Shute (1982), are a decline in agricultural activity and productivity; the

removal of land for cultivation; decreased interest in farming and the

resultant half-hearted efforts of those left behind as labourers or overseers;

the encouragement of land speculation for housing rather than agricultural

production; and the shift from a demand for local produce to preferences