(Jamaica Gleaner) Several young professionals in the public and private sectors are warning that a spate of mass migration is on the horizon if the Government does not clean up its act and roll back the new tax package.
Charmaine Murray, a registered nurse at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), argued that the country would suffer from increased brain drain, particularly in the nursing and teaching professions, as a result of the two-year wage freeze and an increase in taxation on basic food items.
“Migration is a must!” the 27-year-old told The Sunday Gleaner recently. Murray has been working at the KPH for the past three years and said it was no longer a question of whether she would be leaving the island, but when.
She said most of her colleagues shared the same view and many had already started the paperwork to migrate to either Canada or the United States.
“Many have been thinking about leaving from (the prime minister) reneged on his promise to increase our salaries, so this new tax announcement is just icing on the cake,” she said. “It is almost like he is confirming the need for us to leave.”
Murray, who admitted to being “bitter”, said the prospects for young university-educated Jamaicans were dim. “There’s nothing here for us to live off,” she said. “I’m not thinking about how I’m going to cope here; the aim is just to leave.”
She continued: “You don’t realise that we can’t live here? If you’re not getting an increase in salary and yet your expenses are going up, how is it possible to make ends meet?”
Several other young professionals in the health and education sector shared Murray’s views.
Winston Grey, a 26-year-old doctor who works at a Corporate Area public-health facility, is also looking at prospects overseas.
“Migration is an option that many young professionals are considering. When I was in university studying, it was never one of the things that crossed my mind, but now I am giving serious consideration to it.
“The recently announced tax package and the wage freeze have served only to compound the struggles of young doctors, many of whom have student loans and many other financial obligations to meet.
“Many people are of the view that we are well-paid, but they have no idea what our struggles are like. It has reached boiling point now, and like me, I am sure many persons in the profession are going to be examining all our options, and migration is among them,” said the young doctor.
Dwayne Graham*, a 29-year-old mathematics teacher, said he had never thought about leaving his country before, but recently, it had become a serious option.
“It’s not about the recession, because the economic problems are everywhere, but I believe this country is offering less and less to young people as the years go by,” Graham said.
“The truth is I don’t think the Government is seriously thinking about many of the decisions it makes.
“How do they expect people to survive when they say you won’t get a wage increase until 2012, but yet they announce one of the most ambitious tax packages in the country’s history?” he asked.
Figures from the Planning Institute of Jamaica published in 2006 showed that for every tertiary-educated Jamaican living in the island, there were more than three living abroad.
According to the study, from the start of this decade, of the Jamaicans over the age of 25 with university education, 89,000 continued to stay in the island, while 291,000 forged their destinies elsewhere.
However, Junior Rose, president of the Jamaica Association of Young Professionals, is encouraging young university graduates to stay put and help to dig the country out of the social and economical pit in which it is buried.
