Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — July to September 2010

Published: 2 October 2010 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• 4th Biennial: three months on and implementation beginning: Three months after the 4th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference of June 2010 — held in Montego Bay under the shadow of the May 2010 Tivoli Incursion and the Dudus affair’s political turbulence — the MFAFT’s implementation secretariat was translating the conference’s recommendations into institutional actions. The returnee facilitation agenda — which had included proposals on customs concessions, pension portability, property tax relief for returnees, and improved consular documentation support — was being processed through the relevant Jamaican government ministries. The conference had been notable for the strength of diaspora community engagement despite the political turbulence surrounding it.
• Dudus arrested: the extradition saga enters its next phase: Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke had been arrested on 22 June 2010 — at the close of Q2 — and by Q3 the extradition proceedings were underway in Jamaica’s courts. Coke’s surrender to Jamaican police had ended the immediate phase of the Tivoli crisis, but the extradition’s legal process — which required Jamaican court approval before transfer to the United States for the drug trafficking and firearms charges — was proceeding. For diaspora communities that had been following the affair since the extradition request’s first emergence in 2009, the arrest had provided some closure to the most acute phase of the crisis, even as the political damage to PM Golding remained unresolved.
• Haiti: nine months on, recovery fragile: Nine months after the 12 January earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people, Haiti’s recovery was proceeding more slowly than the international community’s initial pledges had suggested. The June 2010 International Donors’ Conference had pledged US$9.9 billion over three years, but disbursement against those pledges was limited and the interim Haiti Recovery Commission — co-chaired by former US President Bill Clinton and Haitian PM Jean-Max Bellerive — was still operationalising its coordination function. In Jamaica’s diaspora communities, the humanitarian response networks established in January remained active, though the acute emergency phase had given way to the slower and less publicly visible work of reconstruction support.
• UK coalition’s emergency budget: the austerity shape becomes clear: Chancellor George Osborne’s June 2010 emergency budget and the Spending Review process underway through Q3 were revealing the scale of the fiscal consolidation programme. The VAT increase to 20 per cent, announced for January 2011; the housing benefit caps; the child benefit freeze; and the public sector pay freeze were all policies with direct impact on the household economics of British-Jamaican communities concentrated in London, Birmingham, and the major urban centres. Community organisations were beginning to assess the combined household income impact of the policy package on their most economically vulnerable members.
• US midterms approaching: diaspora political calendar: With US midterm elections scheduled for 2 November 2010, Caribbean-American diaspora community organisations were engaged in voter registration and civic participation campaigns in the key states — New York, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia — where Jamaican-American population concentrations made electoral participation a community priority. The Tea Party movement’s prominence in Republican primaries through the summer and its anti-immigration positions had sharpened diaspora community political engagement.
• Remittances Q3 2010: recovery continuing: Bank of Jamaica remittance data through Q3 2010 placed Jamaica on course for annual remittances of approximately US$1.9 billion, continuing the recovery from 2009’s dip. The maintained recovery, despite the continuing economic pressure on diaspora households in the US and UK, reflected both the diaspora’s structural commitment to family support and the improving employment picture in the United States as the post-crisis recovery gradually strengthened.

Introduction: From Crisis to Cautious Rebuilding

Q3 2010 found Jamaica’s diaspora community in the complex position of processing the Tivoli Incursion’s political damage, implementing the 4th Biennial’s returnee agenda, supporting Haiti’s continuing recovery, and watching the political shifts in the UK and US that would shape the diaspora’s operating environment for years. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 30 September 2010.

The 4th Biennial’s Implementation: What Was Agreed and What Is Happening

The 4th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, held in Montego Bay from 14–16 June 2010, had taken place under extraordinary circumstances: the May 2010 Tivoli Incursion had killed more than 70 civilians in West Kingston, Christopher Coke had been arrested just a week before the conference opened, and PM Golding was under severe political pressure. That the conference had proceeded at all, and had generated substantive recommendations on returnee facilitation, diaspora investment channels, and consular service improvement, was itself a testament to the institutional resilience of the Biennial framework.

The implementation agenda that emerged was substantial. Customs duty concessions for returning residents — a perennial diaspora concern — were to be streamlined. PICA’s documentation support for returnees was to be improved. Pension portability between Jamaica and the UK, US, and Canada — one of the most practically significant issues for older returnees — was to be the subject of bilateral negotiations. Health sector equivalency recognition for diaspora health professionals returning to Jamaica was to be accelerated. Three months on, the ministerial working groups responsible for these commitments were at early stages of implementation.

Dudus: The Legal Process After the Political Crisis

Coke’s 22 June surrender and arrest had brought the acute crisis phase of the Tivoli Incursion to a close, but the political damage to the Golding government remained substantial. The Western Kingston Commission of Enquiry into the security operation’s conduct was being established. The US extradition request — the original source of the entire crisis — was now progressing through Jamaica’s legal system. Diaspora observers noted the deep irony: a crisis that had begun because the Jamaican government had refused to honour an extradition request would now result in precisely that extradition, at vastly greater political cost.

UK Coalition and US Midterms: The Political Landscape Shifts

The Cameron-Clegg coalition’s formation in May 2010 had produced Britain’s first coalition government since 1945 and a policy programme of fiscal consolidation whose scale and speed exceeded anything seen in post-war British politics. For British-Jamaican communities whose economic security was built substantially on NHS employment, local government services, and public sector careers, the coalition’s austerity programme represented a direct threat to the institutional infrastructure that had supported three generations of Caribbean settlement in Britain.

In the United States, the approach of the November midterms was energising diaspora community civic participation. Caribbean-American community organisations in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Georgia were running voter registration drives, mobilising diaspora community members around the immigration reform agenda that had stalled in Congress, and monitoring the Tea Party movement’s growing influence within the Republican Party.

We report next from 2 January 2011, when the US midterms, the UK Spending Review, and the next phase of Haiti’s recovery will all be clearer.

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 October 2010.

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