Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — October to December 2013

Published: 2 January 2014 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• Nelson Mandela: the world mourns: Nelson Mandela’s death on 5 December 2013, at the age of 95, produced a global outpouring of grief and celebration of his life that was felt with particular depth in the African diaspora communities, including the Jamaican and broader Caribbean community, whose own history of resistance to colonialism and struggle for dignity and self-determination had found in Mandela’s story a universal expression of what that struggle looked like at its most heroic. Mandela had visited Jamaica in 1991, shortly after his release from Victor Verster Prison — a visit that the Jamaican community remembered with deep pride. His connection to the Rastafari movement, to Caribbean anti-colonialism, and to the shared Atlantic liberation tradition gave his passing a particular resonance that the Caribbean diaspora community felt across all its generations.
• US government shutdown: immigration reform imperilled: The 16-day US government shutdown of 1–16 October 2013 — produced by House Republican refusal to fund the government unless the Affordable Care Act was defunded — demonstrated the degree of congressional dysfunction that made comprehensive immigration reform’s passage in the House appear increasingly unlikely. The Senate’s bipartisan reform bill, passed in June 2013 with 68 votes, had been awaiting House action for three months; the shutdown’s resolution did nothing to advance the immigration docket. Caribbean community advocacy organisations recognised that the 2013 legislative calendar was effectively closed for immigration reform and began assessing 2014 options.
• Zimmerman acquittal’s long echo: community processing: Six months on from the 13 July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case, Caribbean-American communities continued to process the verdict’s implications. The Black Lives Matter movement had emerged from the acquittal’s aftermath, and its analysis of racial profiling, Stand Your Ground laws, and the differential value assigned to Black lives in the American justice system continued to resonate in community discussions. President Obama’s deeply personal July 2013 statement — “Trayvon Martin could have been me” — had provided the Caribbean-American community with a moment of presidential recognition of the racial dimensions of the case.
• Jamaica economy: IMF programme entering its stride: The IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s second year of implementation under PM Portia Simpson Miller was beginning to produce the macroeconomic stabilisation its architects had projected. Inflation was declining, the fiscal primary surplus targets were being met, and the exchange rate had stabilised within a managed float. The social costs of adjustment remained real — public sector wage restraint, reduced public investment, and elevated unemployment were the visible consequences of the fiscal consolidation — but the programme’s structural reform components were beginning to create the conditions for a growth recovery.
• Christmas remittances: year’s end strength: Bank of Jamaica preliminary data suggested 2013 closing with total annual remittances of approximately US$2.1 billion, a level broadly consistent with 2012’s performance and reflecting the diaspora’s maintained connection despite the economic pressures of the post-crisis decade. December’s holiday surge provided the quarter’s highest monthly flows, as diaspora community members across North America and the UK maintained the gift-giving and family support traditions that anchored the Christmas remittance cycle.
• 6th Biennial approaching: 2014 preparations begin: With the 6th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference scheduled for June 2014, MFAFT’s diaspora engagement teams were beginning the planning process for what would be the series’ ten-year anniversary gathering. The 5th Biennial’s (June 2012) implementation record provided the foundation for the 6th Biennial’s agenda, and community consultations in diaspora centres across North America and the UK were beginning to identify the priority themes that the June 2014 conference should address.

Introduction: Grief, Dysfunction, and Resilience

Q4 2013 moved from the government shutdown’s political dysfunction to Nelson Mandela’s death’s communal grief, closing the year on a note of diaspora community reflection about the values and struggles that connected Jamaica’s global community across its distances. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 31 December 2013.

Mandela: Jamaica’s Connection to a Global Giant

Mandela’s 1991 Jamaica visit — his first international trip after his release from Robben Island, during which he addressed a massive crowd in Kingston and expressed his gratitude for Jamaica’s solidarity during the anti-apartheid struggle — was a defining moment in the two nations’ relationship. The visit’s memory was freshened by his passing: community members who had been there, or whose parents had been there, shared their accounts in diaspora community media and social gatherings across New York, London, and Toronto. The Rastafari movement’s decades of solidarity with African liberation, and the reggae tradition’s role as a global carrier of anti-colonial consciousness, gave the Caribbean’s mourning a cultural depth that went beyond the political.

Outlook for 2014

2014 opens with immigration reform’s prospects uncertain, the 6th Biennial’s planning underway, Jamaica’s IMF programme on track, and the Black Lives Matter moment continuing to shape American political discourse. We report next from 2 April 2014.

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 2014.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com