She was involuntarily returned to Guyana more than 14 years ago, but the 50-year-old mother of four still cannot find a steady job and finds it “frustrating just to survive.”
“I came back here and I try, but is like people just don’t want to give you a second chance. As soon as they hear the accent, they would say they don’t want no deportee working with them,” the woman, who declined to give her name or the reason she was sent back here from the US, told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
She recalled that when she came back to Guyana after living overseas for 21 years, she had no close relatives and she struggled to get by.
Today she has a buying and selling clothing business but said she often struggles just to pay her bills and make a “turnover.” She lives in a relative’s house but has bills to pay.
This is the story of the hundreds of involuntary re-migrants in Guyana, according to Donna Snagg, one of the founding members of Juncata Juvant (Latin for ‘things joined together are helpful’) Friendly Society, which has been assisting returnees for the past ten years.
The organisation was dormant for some time because of a lack of funding but in November of last year it was re-launched and now occupies a modest office at the corner of Robb and Oronoque streets.
Since then, the organisation has seen some 60 new persons registering, bringing the number of registrants to close to 400.
At present, all those who assist at the organisation do so on a voluntary basis and from time to time, fundraising activities are held to help meet the needs of some persons who register.
Snagg, herself an involuntary re-migrant, holds herself up as a classic example of not being allowed a second chance even though she went as far as acquiring a law degree from the University of Guyana. Because of a lack of funding she was unable to pursue further studies at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago, but she said she has hopes of completing her law studies once a law school is opened in Guyana.
“I have a law degree, so I type legal documents for persons so I can get a little income here and there. I have been looking for a job for 17 years and I have been unsuccessful,” Snagg said.
“I did all sort of things… I was a taxi driver with a law degree for some time. I went and got me a hire car licence and I drove taxi because I had to eat… But I usually type up whatever documents people want me to type up and it’s a cost attached,” she said in a recent interview.
Snagg said she also gets support from her family from time to time but she prays for the day when she can be totally independent.
“I have never stopped looking for a job… I worked briefly with one company and that did not work out for us. And after that I tried looking and they always telling you are over qualified and then I decided to leave out my accounting diploma, my law degree and other certificates and say I have nothing but it did not make a difference,” she said.
Another returnee told of securing a job but being dismissed after her employers learnt she was deported.
“I did a lot. I tried. I did computer studies. I got assistance from IPED but the stigma is just too much,” another woman who has been in Guyana for the past 17 years said.
This newspaper spoke to both men and women and they were all afraid to give their names because they do not want to be identified as deportees.
One 54-year-old woman said she had invested in a shop in the interior. “Things were going good but then my partner get murdered and my family told me just leave everything and come [back to Georgetown] how they would help me,” she said.
“But now it hard for me and I trying to get a job and I just can’t find one.”
They told of how many women are abused because they start relationships with men who mistreat them and they feel they have no alternative.
“I worked at most of the security firms, but it was not easy. It is like people felt I should not work ‘you come from the US to come and do this work?’ and I would say to them I have to eat. But is always an issue,” another woman, who is fighting her case to be returned the US, said.
She said does not believe she did anything to be deported and her children in the US need her.
“It was just a failure to report my income in a timely manner and it was a holiday but they just charge me and then I get deport. I need to go back and be with my children,” the woman pleaded.
A 46-year-old man, who also preferred not to give his name, has been back in Guyana for only two years and with the assistance of his relatives he purchased a car and is working it as a taxi. He also uses his managerial skills to assist persons for a fee.
“Companies are rejecting you just because you have been deported and that is discrimination. They are not prepared or ready and willing to assist,” the man pointed out.
He noted that many of them are skilled but are not given the chance to make it.
Socio-economic
Because of the many stories of being unable to find a job, Snagg said the organisation is now focusing on providing support for the re-migrants’ socio-economic status by helping them to get employment.
While providing for the re-migrants’ social needs was the focus of the organisation when it first started, Snagg said they have moved away from that ideology since it does not really address the problem.
“I know you may say ‘hey ordinary citizen right here some of them with university degrees can’t find a job…’ but they too need to earn a livelihood,” Snagg commented.
The organisation’s board is in discussion to send a proposal to the government to collaborate with the countries most of the involuntary re-migrants are returned from, to facilitate a structure that may result in a subsidiary company being established in Guyana that is not biased towards them.
She pointed out that there is a major company in the US that makes clothing and furniture which also provides training to persons who are incarcerated, and should that company open a subsidiary office here then returned persons with years of experience can gain employment.
“…As opposed to coming here with skills that cannot be utilized because the need does not arise in Guyana,” she posited.
The organisation is not focusing on having registrants be recipients of welfare as most of them are independent persons and do not like to feel they are indigent or living a parasitical life. Should they be given jobs then they would process their own reintegration into society.
She pointed out that it is the working-class women and men who suffer more because they do not have the street skills and as are unable to manoeuvre in a challenging society because they “were most or less a little sheltered but got themselves into some trouble.”
Snaag said there are a few companies that hire persons who are returned and the organisation point their registrants to those companies, but at times they do not have the skills needed.
Food for the Poor has been supporting the organisation with clothing for the men when the need arises, while women are assisted by the board members, most of whom are women.
Snagg said they open their doors every day because some persons just want a listening ear. “And if they come and say they have nowhere to sleep we will make a temporary arrangement; and if they are hungry we are going to find something for them to eat. Whatever we have we share among others,” she said.
Some of the returnees also make small donations to the organisation, often in kind rather than cash.
