Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — April to June 2014

Published: 2 July 2014 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• 6th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference: a new standard set: The 6th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, hosted in Kingston and Montego Bay in June 2014, advanced the conference series’ decade of development with working group sessions that produced concrete commitments across trade and investment facilitation, diaspora philanthropy, health sector partnerships, educational exchange, and returnee support. PM Portia Simpson Miller’s government’s hosting of the 6th Biennial continued the cross-party consensus that has made the Biennial a fixture of Jamaican diplomatic and development policy. The advisory committee structures established at the 6th Biennial will track implementation toward the 7th Biennial in June 2016. The Biennial’s returnee facilitation stream attracted the highest number of prospective returnees of any conference to date, reflecting the maturation of Jamaica’s returnee services infrastructure.
• Chikungunya reaches Jamaica: community alarm: The chikungunya virus — which had been spreading through the Eastern Caribbean since late 2013 — reached Jamaica in Q2 2014 and was moving rapidly through communities by the end of June. Health Ministry advisories warned of the coming outbreak’s scale, encouraged mosquito source reduction, and prepared the public for a disease whose acute phase would be debilitating but generally not life-threatening. The diaspora community was closely monitoring the outbreak’s development in Jamaica, with concern for elderly and immunocompromised family members heightened by reports from other Caribbean islands that had experienced the full outbreak earlier.
• US comprehensive immigration reform: definitively stalled: Speaker John Boehner’s announcement in June 2014 that the House of Representatives would not take up the bipartisan immigration reform bill that the Senate had passed in June 2013 definitively ended the most recent opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. The bill — which would have created a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, increased border security spending, and reformed legal immigration categories — had been the most credible legislative vehicle for addressing the 11 million undocumented residents’ status in a generation. The bill’s death in the House shifted attention to the Obama administration’s potential executive action as the remaining vehicle for relief.
• FIFA World Cup Brazil: Caribbean community engagement: The FIFA World Cup, opening in Brazil on 12 June 2014, generated enormous Caribbean diaspora engagement even in the absence of a Jamaican team — Jamaica had not qualified for the tournament. The Jamaican community’s Brazil connections — through Caribbean migration networks, music, and Afro-Caribbean cultural solidarity — made the host nation a natural focus of community engagement. England’s group-stage exit brought both disappointment and some dark humour to British-Jamaican communities, whose second football allegiance was inevitably England.
• Iraq and the ISIS crisis: global instability: The Islamic State’s June 2014 declaration of a caliphate across northern Iraq and Syria — following the fall of Mosul on 10 June — produced a new phase of Middle Eastern instability with global economic implications, including potential oil price effects that would affect the energy costs of both Jamaica’s economy and the diaspora’s host countries. The crisis reinforced the difficult global security environment within which Caribbean diaspora communities were navigating their daily lives.
• Remittances Q2 2014: steady growth: Bank of Jamaica data for Q2 2014 showed continued positive year-on-year remittance growth, with the US source market performing well and the UK maintaining steady flows despite the pound’s modest volatility. Total 2014 annual flows were tracking toward approximately US$2.2 billion. The 6th Biennial’s investment facilitation stream generated several diaspora investment commitments in property, tourism, and agribusiness that will advance through the second half of 2014.

Introduction: Conference, Virus, and Legislative Defeat

The second quarter of 2014 was defined by the 6th Biennial’s landmark gathering, the first signs of chikungunya’s arrival, and the definitive failure of comprehensive immigration reform in the US House. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 30 June 2014.

6th Biennial: Ten Years On, The Series Matures

The 6th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference represented the ten-year mark of a series that had begun modestly in 2004 and had grown into the principal organised channel for the two-way relationship between Jamaica and its global diaspora. The conference’s working group structure — bringing together diaspora community leaders, private sector representatives, government officials, and prospective returnees — had evolved over six biennial cycles into a format that balanced policy dialogue with practical commitment-making. The 6th Biennial’s returnee facilitation sessions were notable for the attendance of PICA officials, financial services representatives, and investment facilitation officers who could provide prospective returnees with concrete information about the process, costs, and incentives of return migration.

Immigration Reform’s Death: The Executive Action Question

Speaker Boehner’s announcement ended the legislative phase of the immigration reform debate for the foreseeable future. The Obama administration’s response — signalling that the President would use his executive authority to take as much action as the law permitted — set up the executive action announcement that would come in November 2014. Caribbean community advocacy organisations, while disappointed by the House’s failure, pivoted quickly to pressing the administration for maximum executive action and to preparing community members for a process that might provide relief without legislation.

Outlook for Q3 2014

Q3 2014 brings the full force of Jamaica’s chikungunya outbreak, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Scotland’s independence referendum on 18 September, the Ferguson moment following Michael Brown’s August killing, and the 6th Biennial’s first three months of implementation. We report next from 2 October 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 July 2014.

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