Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — October to December 2006

Published: 2 January 2007 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• Saddam Hussein Executed by Hanging in Baghdad on 30 December
• Democrats Sweep US Midterms, Taking Both House and Senate
• Nancy Pelosi Set to Become America’s First Female Speaker
• 2nd Biennial Follow-Through: Implementation Gains Assessed at Six Months
• Christmas Remittances Record Another Strong Year-End Close
• Jamaica’s PM Simpson Miller Faces a Tightening Pre-Election Contest

Introduction: The Year Ends With a Hanging and a Blue Wave

Q4 2006 closed the year with the execution of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious dictators and the political repudiation of a war policy that had produced him as a priority. The US midterm elections of 7 November were the quarter’s dominant political story; Saddam Hussein’s execution on 30 December its most dramatic closing event. Between them, Jamaica’s diaspora navigated Christmas, the 2nd Biennial’s six-month implementation assessment, and the early signals of a Jamaica general election that would define the next quarter or two. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 31 December 2006.

The US Midterms: What the Democratic Wave Means for the Diaspora

The 7 November 2006 US midterm elections produced the largest shift of congressional power since the 1994 Republican Revolution: Democrats gained 31 House seats and 6 Senate seats, retaking majority control of both chambers for the first time since 1994. The wave was driven primarily by public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war — which the Baker-Hamilton Commission was simultaneously assessing and whose mounting costs in American lives and treasure had eroded the Republican majority’s political foundations. Exit polls showed Iraq as the dominant issue for voters across partisan lines, with the economy, corruption, and healthcare also cited as significant factors.

For Caribbean-American diaspora communities in the key states — New York, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia — the Democratic wave produced a congressional delegation more aligned with community policy priorities. Immigration reform, which had produced the extraordinary street demonstrations of spring 2006 — the largest mass civic mobilisation in the United States since the civil rights movement — was at the top of the new Congress’s agenda. Healthcare access, the minimum wage, and housing support were close behind. Community organisations that had run voter mobilisation drives through the autumn were assessing turnout in Caribbean-heritage communities and finding record participation levels in many areas.

Nancy Pelosi’s election as Speaker of the House — confirmed by the new Democratic caucus — would make her the first woman to hold the position and the highest-ranking female elected official in American history. For Caribbean diaspora communities with strong traditions of female political leadership — traditions that included Jamaica’s own Portia Simpson Miller in the prime ministerial office — Pelosi’s speakership was a milestone that resonated across gender lines.

Saddam Hussein’s Execution: The End of an Era

The execution of Saddam Hussein by hanging, carried out at 6:05 a.m. Baghdad time on 30 December 2006, at a military intelligence facility in Kadhimiya, was carried out by the Iraqi government following his conviction by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal for crimes against humanity. The execution — whose timing, on the morning of Eid al-Adha, generated controversy across the Muslim world — closed the legal chapter that had opened with his December 2003 capture. For Caribbean diaspora communities, the execution’s significance was filtered through the same ambivalence that had attended the Iraq war’s entire conduct: support for accountability for atrocities, deep scepticism about the war that had made the tribunal possible, and concern about the manner and timing of the execution’s conduct.

2nd Biennial: Six-Month Implementation Review

Six months after the 2nd Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference of June 2006 — the first to be held under Portia Simpson Miller’s PNP government — the MFAFT’s implementation secretariat was assessing progress against the conference’s commitments on returnee facilitation, diaspora investment, and consular service improvement. The conference had produced a more structured set of working group recommendations than the inaugural 2004 Biennial, reflecting the maturing of the institutional process. Progress on customs duty concessions for returning residents was the most frequently cited implementation gap by diaspora community organisations monitoring the commitments.

The 2nd Biennial’s legacy was also being assessed in the context of the approaching Jamaica general election. Any change of government — with the JLP’s Golding mounting an increasingly credible challenge — would require a new administration’s endorsement of the Biennial framework and its implementation commitments. The cross-party legitimacy that the conference series had established through its first two editions would be tested by its first transition between parties in government. Christmas remittances closed 2006 at a strong level, maintaining the trajectory toward approximately US$1.9–2.0 billion for the year. We report next from 2 April 2007.

This Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora and Returnee Update is researched and published by Jamaica Homes News. Sources include Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and PICA. All figures and developments are accurate as of the publication date, 2 January 2007.

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