Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — January to March 2019

Published: 2 April 2019 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• 8th Biennial: nine months of follow-through: The 8th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, held in Montego Bay in June 2018, is nine months into its implementation cycle. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Jamaica Diaspora Institute are maintaining the advisory committee and working group structures established at the conference, tracking progress against sectoral commitments in economic development, diaspora investment, skills transfer, and community engagement. The 9th Biennial, targeted for June 2020, is now formally entering its early planning phase.
• US government shutdown ends; Trump declares national border emergency: The 35-day US government shutdown — the longest in American history at the time — ended on 25 January 2019 without the border wall funding President Trump had demanded. Trump subsequently declared a national emergency on 15 February to redirect existing federal funds toward wall construction, triggering a constitutional challenge from Congressional Democrats and a wave of state attorneys general. For Jamaican-American communities, the shutdown’s impact on federal government workers and contractors — a significant proportion of whom are Black and minority workers — was a material concern, as was the sustained political prioritisation of border restriction over comprehensive immigration reform.
• Trump immigration: enforcement continues, DACA uncertain: The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement programme maintained its elevated pace through Q1 2019, with ICE deportation flights to Jamaica continuing. The DACA programme — protecting approximately 700,000 young people brought to the US as children — remained in legal limbo, with multiple federal court rulings and a Supreme Court petition creating sustained uncertainty for Dreamers and their families. Jamaican-American legal advocacy organisations continued their Know Your Rights programming and emergency legal support services.
• Jamaica economy: steady growth continues under Holness: Jamaica’s economy maintained its steady positive trajectory through Q1 2019, with the IMF economic reform programme delivering its expected outcomes of controlled inflation, declining unemployment, and modest GDP growth. Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s administration, approaching the midpoint of its parliamentary mandate, pointed to the historic unemployment lows and continued fiscal improvement as evidence of the programme’s success. The tourism sector’s 2018 record performance established a high baseline for 2019.
• National Diaspora Policy: second year of implementation: Jamaica’s National Diaspora Policy, formally adopted in 2017, entered its second full year of implementation in 2019. The MFAFT’s diaspora affairs directorate continued its structured engagement programming across North America, the UK, and the Caribbean, implementing the policy’s five strategic pillars: economic engagement, civic participation, cultural expression, diaspora services, and diaspora governance. Annual review of implementation progress was conducted through the established diaspora advisory committee framework.
• Windrush Compensation Scheme opens: British-Jamaican community responds: The Windrush Compensation Scheme opened in April 2019 — right at this report’s publication date — following the Home Office’s formal apology for the Windrush scandal and former Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s commitment to full compensation for affected individuals. The scheme’s opening is a significant moment for British-Jamaican communities that have carried the weight of the Windrush injustice. Caribbean community advocacy organisations have committed to supporting claimants through the process, while noting that the scheme’s design and administration will determine whether the commitment to justice becomes a reality.

Introduction: Steady Progress in an Unsettled World

The first quarter of 2019 finds Jamaica’s diaspora navigating a familiar tension between the sustained positive trajectory of Jamaica’s economic development and the political turbulence of the major diaspora host countries. In the United States, the longest government shutdown in American history has ended without resolution of the underlying immigration policy conflict, and President Trump’s declaration of a national border emergency has intensified the constitutional and political confrontation over immigration that defines the operating environment for Jamaican-American communities. In the United Kingdom, Brexit’s seemingly endless delay — now with a third extension granted and parliament unable to agree on any path forward — creates ongoing uncertainty for British-Jamaican households planning their futures. Against this backdrop, Jamaica itself continues its steady economic and social progress. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 31 March 2019.

8th Biennial: Nine Months On

Nine months on from the 8th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference of June 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade’s post-conference implementation programme continues to maintain the advisory committee and working group structures established at that gathering. The 8th Biennial’s sectoral commitments — spanning economic development and investment, housing, agriculture, technology, health, education, and cultural engagement — provided the programmatic framework for MFAFT’s diaspora engagement through the subsequent months, and the nine-month mark provides a useful early assessment point for progress.

The persistent challenge of translating diaspora conference commitments into measurable investment flows and programme outcomes is well understood by those who have followed successive biennial cycles. The structural gap between the aspirational energy of the biennial conference and the institutional capacity to facilitate diaspora investment at scale has been a recurring theme. The 9th Biennial, now in its early planning phase with June 2020 as the target, is being positioned as an opportunity to develop more structured investment facilitation mechanisms: concrete pathways through which diaspora capital can be channelled into productive Jamaican economic activity, with the due diligence, legal, and financial infrastructure to make diaspora investment practically accessible.

US Government Shutdown and the Border Emergency

The 35-day US government partial shutdown — which ran from 22 December 2018 to 25 January 2019, making it the longest government shutdown in American history at that time — ended with a temporary funding resolution that avoided a wall funding commitment while restoring federal operations for several weeks to allow negotiations to continue. The shutdown’s impact on federal government employees and contractors who went without pay for 35 days was acute, and given the disproportionate representation of Black and minority workers in federal government employment and contracting, its effects resonated within Jamaican-American and broader Caribbean diaspora communities.

When those negotiations produced no border wall compromise, President Trump declared a national emergency on 15 February 2019, seeking to redirect existing appropriated federal funds — from military construction, Treasury Department forfeiture funds, and Department of Defense drug interdiction accounts — toward wall construction. The declaration immediately triggered a legal challenge led by California and joined by fifteen other state attorneys general, as well as a Congressional resolution of disapproval that passed both chambers but was vetoed by Trump. The constitutional confrontation over the emergency declaration — and what it would mean for the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches on spending — was working its way through the courts at this report’s publication date.

For Jamaican-American community organisations, the wall debate’s dominant positioning in US immigration politics continued to crowd out discussion of comprehensive immigration reform — the path to regularisation and citizenship for long-term residents without legal status, and the expansion of legal immigration pathways that would benefit Caribbean families. The sustained focus on southern border security over internal enforcement priorities or visa backlogs that affect Caribbean-origin communities reflected a political prioritisation that Jamaican-American advocacy organisations continued to challenge through their engagement with Congressional allies.

Trump Immigration: Enforcement and DACA

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement programme maintained its elevated pace through Q1 2019, with ICE deportation flights to Jamaica continuing at the frequencies established through 2017 and 2018. PICA’s deportee reception operation at Norman Manley International Airport continued to process arrivals under the established protocols, connecting deportees with initial support services and beginning the documentation and reintegration assessment process that would determine each individual’s access to RISE Life Management Services’ reintegration programming.

The DACA programme’s legal status remained in limbo through Q1 2019, with multiple federal circuit court rulings having reached conflicting conclusions about the programme’s legality and the administration’s authority to rescind it. The Supreme Court’s eventual agreement to resolve the question was awaited, and the uncertainty created by the legal vacuum continued to affect the approximately 700,000 active DACA recipients — a portion of whom were Jamaican-origin Dreamers who had been brought to the United States as children. Jamaican-American community legal organisations provided advice and representation to DACA recipients navigating renewal applications and the uncertain legal environment.

Jamaica Economy: IMF Programme Delivery

Jamaica’s domestic economy continued its steady positive trajectory through Q1 2019, delivering on the metrics that the IMF economic reform programme has established as benchmarks for the country’s fiscal and economic normalisation. Unemployment continued its multi-year decline, reaching levels well below the double-digit rates that characterised the pre-reform period. Inflation remained controlled within the Bank of Jamaica’s target band. GDP growth continued at the modest but consistent rate — in the 1-2 per cent range — that represents the most sustained growth period in Jamaica’s post-independence economic history.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s government, approaching the midpoint of its parliamentary mandate and beginning to position for a general election that must be called by 2021, pointed to the unemployment lows, fiscal improvement, and sustained growth as evidence of the reform programme’s success and the government’s economic management credentials. The political question of whether the economic improvement was reaching ordinary Jamaicans — through wage growth, public service improvements, and reduced cost of living pressure — continued to be debated, with the opposition PNP arguing that the growth’s benefits were unevenly distributed.

National Diaspora Policy: Second Year

Jamaica’s National Diaspora Policy, formally adopted in 2017 following years of consultation with diaspora community organisations and the policy’s development through the MFAFT’s diaspora affairs directorate, entered its second year of implementation in 2019. The policy’s five strategic pillars — economic engagement, civic and social participation, cultural expression, diaspora services, and diaspora governance — provide a comprehensive framework for Jamaica’s engagement with its estimated three million strong global diaspora community.

The policy’s second year has seen continued development of the institutional infrastructure for its implementation: the Jamaica Diaspora Institute’s research and knowledge management function, the Diaspora Advisory Board’s oversight of cross-pillar programming, and the consular network’s delivery of diaspora services across North America, the UK, and the Caribbean. Annual review of implementation progress, conducted through the established advisory committee framework, provided the basis for programmatic adjustments and the identification of resource gaps that require attention in the policy’s ongoing implementation.

Windrush Compensation Scheme: A Moment of Reckoning

The Home Office’s formal opening of the Windrush Compensation Scheme in April 2019 — announced just as this quarterly report is published — represents a significant milestone in the British state’s reckoning with the Windrush scandal’s injustices. The scheme’s opening follows the damning findings of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, which examined how the Home Office’s hostile environment policies led to Windrush generation members and their descendants being wrongfully denied the rights they were legally entitled to as British subjects and citizens: subjected to deportation, detention, loss of employment, denial of NHS care, and denial of their rightful place in British life.

Caribbean community advocacy organisations in the UK have welcomed the scheme’s opening while registering significant concerns about its design and administration. The scheme’s evidential requirements — which expect claimants to document losses that may date back decades, in a context where many Windrush generation members have poor documentation precisely because of the hostile environment policies that denied them their rights — risk creating systematic barriers to compensation. The Home Office’s administration of the scheme will be closely monitored by the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee and by the community organisations that have committed to supporting claimants through the process. Jamaica’s government, which has maintained diplomatic pressure on the UK throughout the Windrush saga, has welcomed the scheme’s opening while continuing to advocate for the community’s full and expeditious compensation.

Remittances: Positive Start to 2019

Jamaica’s remittance inflows maintained their positive trajectory into 2019, with preliminary BOJ data for Q1 confirming continued year-on-year growth. The sustained health of US employment — with the national unemployment rate remaining near historic lows despite the government shutdown’s temporary disruption — continued to support Jamaican-American remittance-sending capacity. The UK and Canadian source markets also contributed solid Q1 performance, reflecting stable employment conditions and the sustained commitment of diaspora members to family financial support.

The continued growth of digital remittance channels was a structural feature of Q1 2019’s remittance performance. The World Bank’s reporting on the declining average cost of sending remittances globally reflected the competitive dynamics of the remittance industry — with digital platforms reducing costs and expanding access — though the Caribbean corridor’s costs remained higher than global averages. Advocacy for further cost reduction through the G20’s Sustainable Development Goal targets remained active, with potential economic benefits for Jamaican recipient households if transfer costs continue to decline.

Outlook for Q2 2019

The second quarter of 2019 will bring the CONCACAF Gold Cup — beginning 15 June — which will provide a major platform for Jamaican diaspora community mobilisation if the Reggae Boyz perform as the squad’s quality suggests they are capable of doing. Brexit’s resolution — or its continued delay — will continue to shape the environment for British-Jamaican community planning. The IMF’s next Article IV consultation with Jamaica will provide an updated assessment of the reform programme’s progress. And the Windrush Compensation Scheme’s early operation — the pace of claim processing and the accessibility of the process for vulnerable older claimants — will be closely monitored by community advocacy organisations and this publication. We report next from 2 July 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 April 2019.