The Ramphal Commission on Migration and Development, which met at the University of the West Indies (UWI) last week, heard that seven of the ten top emigration countries in the world are in the Caribbean, and Guyana tops the list with 89%, providing highly trained people to the developed countries, Africa and Caribbean neighbours.
Professor Elizabeth Thomas-Hope of UWI, Mona, in a draft report for the meeting, quoted those statistics from World Bank figures for 2011 which show that seven out of the ten top emigration countries in the world (of those who have been educated to a tertiary level) are in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Bruce Golding of Jamaica has told the Ramphal Commission that Commonwealth action on this vital international issue is now urgent and he offered support to efforts to place it on the agenda of the forthcoming summit in Australia later this year.
According to a news story from the Migration and Development Office in Kingston, Jamaica, Golding told the commission which was chaired by former Jamaican prime minister PJ Patterson that this was an initiative that was “long overdue”.
Golding also stressed that migration is going to continue to rise but there is “a risk of lopsided benefits if there is no partnership between nations of origin and destination.”
The primary purpose of the meeting in Jamaica was to review the draft report prepared by Professor Thomas-Hope. This report focused on two crucial issues: environmentally induced migration; and the loss of skilled persons from small and least developed states. Commissioners agreed that these issues are especially pertinent to Caribbean and Pacific members of the 54-nation Commonwealth, the release stated.
The commission was holding its third meeting since its establishment in 2009.
In her report, Prof Thomas-Hope examined climate hazards such as drought, sea-level rise and the destruction of coastal lands which these countries are now facing. She said governments must now respond to the intensity and the growing scale of the challenge. They need to adapt and intervene to prevent the worsening of the environment in small countries.
According to the news story, regarding the emigration of skilled persons, the professor indicated that the poorest countries are losing proportionately more people. She quoted World Bank figures for 2011 which show that seven out of the ten top emigration countries in the world (of those who have been educated to a tertiary level) are in the Caribbean.
Guyana tops the list with 89% and is providing highly trained people to the developed countries, Africa and to Caribbean neighbours. In addition, two of the non-Caribbean states in the top ten – Samoa and Tonga – are also in the Commonwealth.
The meeting of the Ramphal Commission in Jamaica was attended by six of its seven commissioners. At the meeting were Patterson, Chairman; Ambassador Farooq Sobhan, former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh; Jill Lliffe, Executive Director of the Commonwealth Nurses Federation; Will Day, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission; Professor John Oucho, Director of the African Migration and Development Policy Centre in Nairobi, Kenya; and Professor Brenda Yeoh of the National University of Singapore. Former President of Cyprus George Vassiliou was unable to be present, the release added.
Also in attendance and making presentations were representatives of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the United Nations, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) as well as Ambassador June Spooner, St Lucia’s representative to the Caribbean Community and the Special Representative on Diaspora Affairs.
In his introductory remarks, Patterson said that “topics before the meeting are matters of life and death for the Caribbean community and for small states in the Commonwealth.” He added that Caribbean states have a compelling obligation to deal with environmental degradation which can reduce the option of people to stay in their countries of origin.
Commissioners considered how to build capacity in the management of environmentally induced migration, and how to reduce vulnerability to environmentally based hazards. They also discussed the need for more cooperation between source and destination countries and examined how migration can be integrated into development policies. The noted the advantages of linkages with the diaspora and a wider partnership for development in states of origin.
