Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — October to December 2018

Published: 2 January 2019 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• 8th Biennial: six months of follow-through: The 8th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, held in Montego Bay in June 2018, is six months into its implementation cycle. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Jamaica Diaspora Institute have maintained the advisory committee and working group structures established at the conference, with sectoral commitments in economic development, housing, technology, and agriculture under active review. The conference’s thematic focus on diaspora investment has generated a pipeline of structured engagement that the MFAFT is now working to convert into measurable investment flows ahead of the 9th Biennial cycle.
• US midterms: Democratic wave and Caribbean-American electoral participation: The November 6, 2018 US midterm elections delivered a significant Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, with Caribbean-American communities — concentrated in the New York, South Florida, and New England congressional districts that were among the most competitive — playing a notable role in the electoral outcome. The elections also produced the most diverse US Congress in history, with record numbers of women, minority, and LGBTQ+ members elected. For Jamaican-American community organisations that had been advocating for immigration reform and against aggressive enforcement, the House shift created new legislative possibilities heading into 2019.
• Windrush: compensation scheme design advances: Under Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who replaced the disgraced Amber Rudd following the Windrush scandal’s peak in April 2018, the Home Office made progress through Q4 2018 toward the design of a formal compensation scheme for Windrush generation members and their families who had suffered harm under the hostile environment policies. The scheme, expected to open in early 2019, was being designed in consultation with Caribbean community organisations and legal experts, though concerns about its accessibility and evidential requirements remained.
• Jamaica tourism 2018: another strong year: Jamaica’s tourism sector closed 2018 with another strong annual performance, with stopover visitor arrivals approaching 2.5 million and setting the foundation for what is expected to be a record-breaking 2019. The Christmas-New Year period delivered solid results, and the Jamaica Tourist Board’s forward booking data for Q1 2019 pointed to continued positive momentum. The sector’s sustained outperformance has been a central driver of Jamaica’s economic growth trajectory and a key platform for returnee professional and investment opportunities.
• Family separation aftermath: Trump’s zero tolerance policy legacy: The Trump administration’s zero tolerance border policy — which had produced the systematic separation of migrant families at the US-Mexico border through May and June 2018 before being ended by executive order on 20 June following national outrage — left a legacy of thousands of children still separated from their parents through Q4 2018. The policy’s implementation and its documented failures resonated across immigrant communities, including Jamaican-American households, as a demonstration of the administration’s willingness to deploy family separation as an immigration deterrent tool.
• Remittances: strong 2018 and building toward year-end: Jamaica’s remittance inflows for 2018 are tracking toward approximately US$2.8 billion — another strong annual performance and continued growth from 2017. The Q4 Christmas season, which traditionally generates the year’s peak quarterly remittance volume, contributed to a year-end total that confirms the sustained strength of formal remittance channels and the continued commitment of diaspora members to family financial support in Jamaica.

Introduction: A Pivotal Year Concludes

The fourth quarter of 2018 closes what has been one of the most eventful years in Jamaica’s diaspora history: the year of the Windrush scandal’s full public reckoning, the 8th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, the Trump administration’s family separation crisis, and another strong performance from Jamaica’s economy. As this report is published on 2 January 2019, the year’s achievements and its unresolved challenges are both clearly visible. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 31 December 2018.

8th Biennial Conference: Six Months On

Six months on from the 8th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference of June 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade’s implementation programme is at the critical point where post-conference energy must be converted into durable institutional action. The conference’s sectoral working groups — covering housing and real estate, agriculture, technology, health, education, and cultural industries — have maintained their advisory committee structures and begun the process of converting aspirational commitments into programmatic frameworks. The MFAFT’s diaspora investment facilitation work — building the legal, financial, and logistical infrastructure that would enable diaspora capital to flow into Jamaican economic activity at scale — is the most strategically significant element of the post-biennial implementation period.

The 8th Biennial’s particular emphasis on diaspora economic engagement — reflecting both the scale of diaspora remittance flows and the aspiration to channel a greater portion of diaspora capital into productive investment rather than consumption support — has driven the development of new facilitation frameworks in the housing sector, where Jamaica Homes and PICA’s Returning Residents programme are working to create clearer pathways for diaspora property investment. The National Housing Trust’s diaspora mortgage product and the associated customs duty exemption framework for returning residents continued to be the primary formal mechanisms through which diaspora housing investment is facilitated.

US Midterms: Democratic Wave and the Caribbean-American Vote

The November 6, 2018 US midterm elections delivered the electoral outcome that had been widely anticipated by political analysts: a significant Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, achieved primarily through suburban swing district gains in states that had supported Trump in 2016 but where his policy record — particularly on healthcare, immigration, and governance — had eroded support among moderate voters. The Senate remained in Republican hands, limiting the scope for legislative action in the 116th Congress.

For Caribbean-American communities concentrated in the Northeast and South Florida, the midterms represented an important exercise of collective political voice. In New York’s 9th congressional district, in South Florida’s Caribbean-majority communities, and in other districts with significant Jamaican-American populations, community organisations had conducted intensive voter registration and turnout drives through the year. The elections produced the most diverse Congress in US history, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory in New York’s 14th district — a district with significant Caribbean-origin constituent communities — among the most prominent results. The Democratic House majority creates new possibilities for immigration reform legislation, though the Senate’s Republican composition means that any reform must achieve bipartisan support to proceed.

Windrush: Compensation Scheme in Development

The Windrush scandal — which had produced a political crisis in the spring of 2018 as the full scale of the Home Office’s wrongful deportation, detention, and denial of rights of Windrush generation members became public — continued to work its way through the British government’s institutional response through Q4 2018. Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who replaced Amber Rudd following her resignation over her misleading statements to Parliament about deportation targets, has made the Windrush response a priority of his tenure.

The formal Windrush Compensation Scheme, which the government has committed to opening in early 2019, was in its design phase through Q4 2018. Consultations with Caribbean community organisations, the Windrush Justice taskforce, and legal experts produced detailed submissions about the scheme’s structure, its evidential requirements, and its accessibility for older and vulnerable claimants. Caribbean community advocates pressed for a scheme that would place the burden of proof on the government rather than on claimants, would provide independent caseworker support, and would include categories of loss broad enough to capture the full range of harms suffered. The Home Office’s response to these submissions will determine whether the scheme delivers on the government’s commitment to justice.

Trump’s Immigration Legacy: Family Separation Aftermath

The Trump administration’s zero tolerance border policy — which directed federal prosecutors to refer all illegal border crossings for criminal prosecution and, as a consequence, required the separation of accompanying children from their parents — had been formally ended by executive order on 20 June 2018 following national and international outrage. However, its legacy through Q4 2018 was the continued separation of thousands of children from their parents, as the administrative and legal processes required to reunite families proved far more complex and slower than the administration’s rapid implementation of the separation policy had created the means to reverse.

For Jamaican-American community organisations, the family separation crisis functioned as an intense political education about the administration’s willingness to weaponise family separation as an immigration deterrent. While the zero tolerance policy had been applied at the southern border to asylum seekers and undocumented border crossers — a population with limited overlap with the established Jamaican-American community — its existence demonstrated an administration approach to immigration enforcement that generated sustained anxiety across all immigrant communities about the direction of travel. ICE enforcement against Jamaican nationals with removal orders — often long-term residents with US-citizen family members — continued at elevated levels through Q4 2018.

Jamaica Economy: Tourism Record Year

Jamaica’s domestic economy continued its positive trajectory through Q4 2018, with the IMF economic reform programme delivering controlled inflation, declining unemployment, and modest GDP growth. The tourism sector’s 2018 performance — approaching 2.5 million stopover visitor arrivals for the full year — represented another record, with the Christmas-New Year peak contributing to a strong year-end. Prime Minister Holness’s government entered 2019 with positive economic momentum and its eye on a general election that must be called no later than 2021.

The returnee community’s engagement with Jamaica’s housing market continued through Q4 2018, with PICA’s Returning Residents facilitation service processing steady inquiry volumes from British-Jamaican and Jamaican-American prospective returnees. The Christmas holiday period, which brings the largest annual concentration of diaspora visits to Jamaica, generates significant property market activity as diaspora visitors take the opportunity to inspect properties, meet with lawyers and agents, and advance return planning decisions that they have been developing over multiple visits.

Remittances: A Strong 2018

Jamaica’s full-year 2018 remittance performance is tracking toward approximately US$2.8 billion — another year of solid growth from 2017 and continued progress toward the record levels that the sustained expansion of formal channels and diaspora employment support. The Q4 Christmas peak — the year’s traditional high point for remittance volumes — confirmed the year’s strong trajectory. BOJ data through November showed the year firmly ahead of 2017’s performance, with December’s traditionally strong flows completing the annual total.

Outlook for Q1 2019

The first quarter of 2019 opens with a Democratic House majority taking office in Washington, creating a different legislative environment for immigration advocacy. The Windrush Compensation Scheme is expected to open. The new Congress’s first major immigration confrontation — over the government shutdown that began on 22 December 2018 when Trump refused to sign a spending bill without border wall funding — is already underway as this report is published. We report next from 2 April 2019.

This Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora and Returnee Update is researched and published by Jamaica Homes News. Sources consulted include the Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Nationwide News Network, RJR News, Caribbean National Weekly, Bank of Jamaica, Planning Institute of Jamaica, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and PICA. All figures and developments are accurate as of the publication date, 2 January 2019.

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