Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — April to June 2012

Published: 2 July 2012 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• Obama announces DACA: a transformative moment for the diaspora’s young: President Obama’s Rose Garden announcement on 15 June 2012 — that the administration would use its prosecutorial discretion to defer deportation proceedings against young people who had arrived in the United States as children — was the most significant positive immigration policy development for the Jamaican-American community since the 1986 amnesty. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme’s criteria — arrival before age 16, five years of continuous residence, education or military service completion, absence of serious criminal history — covered a substantial number of Jamaican-American young adults who had grown up in the US, graduated from American high schools and universities, but lacked the legal status that would allow them to work, drive, or build stable lives. Applications would open in August 2012. The diaspora community’s response was emotional and immediate.
• 5th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference: a maturing series: The 5th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, hosted in Kingston and Montego Bay in June 2012, continued the series’ development with working group sessions addressing trade and investment, diaspora philanthropy, health sector partnerships, educational exchange, returnee facilitation, and the emerging digital engagement agenda. The Biennial’s fifth iteration represented a decade of conference-series relationship building and produced a set of advisory committee commitments that would be implemented over the two-year cycle leading to the 6th Biennial in June 2014. The Portia Simpson Miller government’s hosting of the conference was its first major diaspora engagement event following her return to the prime ministership in January 2012.
• Diamond Jubilee: complex feelings in British-Jamaican communities: Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 2–5 June 2012 — featuring the Thames Pageant, concerts at Buckingham Palace, and a national day of celebration — produced a complex range of responses in British-Jamaican communities. For community members whose parents had come to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s as subjects of the Crown and had built their lives in service of the British state — in the NHS, in public transport, in local government — the Jubilee’s celebration of six decades of the Queen’s reign was a moment whose meaning was inseparable from the community’s own history in postwar Britain. For younger community members, the celebration also prompted reflection on the colonial history that the Jubilee’s narrative tended to elide.
• Trayvon Martin case: community attention intensifies: The February 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida — and George Zimmerman’s non-arrest under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law — continued to dominate Caribbean-American community attention through Q2 2012. The “Hoodie” protests of March, President Obama’s “If I had a son’ statement in April, and the ongoing activism demanding Zimmerman’s arrest and prosecution — which eventually came in April — reflected the Caribbean-American community’s deep engagement with a case that connected to their own experiences of racial profiling.
• London Olympics imminent: diaspora anticipation builds: With the London 2012 Olympics opening on 27 July — just three weeks after this edition publishes — anticipation across Jamaican diaspora communities was at fever pitch. Usain Bolt’s stated intention to repeat his Beijing treble, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s title defence, and the broader Jamaican squad’s prospects were the subject of intense community interest. For British-Jamaican communities, the prospect of Bolt running in London — on British soil, to a British crowd — had a particular resonance.
• Remittances Q2 2012: steady positive performance: Bank of Jamaica data for Q2 2012 showed positive year-on-year remittance growth, with both the US and UK source markets maintaining their flows. Total 2012 annual flows were tracking toward approximately US$2.1 billion. The 5th Biennial’s investment facilitation sessions generated diaspora investment commitments in property and agribusiness that supplemented the remittance transfer data as indicators of diaspora financial engagement with Jamaica.

Introduction: DACA, the Biennial, and a Golden Summer Approaching

Q2 2012 was bookended by the 5th Biennial’s June conference and Obama’s 15 June DACA announcement, with the London Olympics and Jamaica’s 50th independence anniversary just weeks away as this edition publishes. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 30 June 2012.

DACA: What It Means for the Community’s Young Adults

Obama’s DACA announcement was framed explicitly as a presidential exercise of prosecutorial discretion rather than an act of Congress, and the administration was careful to emphasise that it did not create a pathway to citizenship or legal permanent residence. But for the Jamaican-American young adults who qualified — the “Dreamers” whose life experience was entirely American but whose legal status was entirely insecure — the programme’s practical significance was enormous: a work permit, a Social Security number, a driver’s licence, protection from removal. Community organisations’ response was to organise immediately: Know Your Rights sessions to explain eligibility criteria, document preparation workshops, pro bono legal assistance networks, and community fundraising to help qualifying individuals who could not afford the $465 application fee.

Outlook for Q3 2012

Q3 2012 brings the London Olympics — where Bolt seeks his second treble and the British-Jamaican community experiences its most dual-identity moment — Jamaica’s 50th independence celebrations, DACA’s application opening in August, and the approach of the US presidential election campaign’s final phase. We report next from 2 October 2012.

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 July 2012.

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