Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — October to December 2017

Introduction: The Hurricane Season and Its Aftermath

The fourth quarter of 2017 is defined, in its Caribbean context, by the continuing humanitarian emergency produced by the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season — one of the most destructive in recorded history. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria produced catastrophic losses across the Caribbean and the US Gulf Coast, with Puerto Rico and Dominica suffering the most devastating impacts and facing recovery timelines measured in years rather than months. Jamaica was spared direct major impact from Irma and Maria, but the broader Caribbean context of devastation shaped the diaspora community’s humanitarian consciousness and solidarity through the quarter. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 31 December 2017.

Hurricane Maria: Caribbean Solidarity and Puerto Rican Crisis

Hurricane Maria made landfall on Dominica as a Category 5 storm on 18 September 2017, effectively destroying the island’s entire infrastructure. It then hit Puerto Rico on 20 September with Category 4 intensity, knocking out the entire electrical grid and producing catastrophic flooding, infrastructure destruction, and loss of life across the US territory. The federal government’s response to Puerto Rico’s emergency was widely characterised as inadequate: slow, underfunded, and characterised by a presidential indifference to the island’s US citizens that was in stark contrast to the response provided to Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Through Q4 2017, Puerto Rico’s electrical grid remained largely dark months after the storm, water was unclean in many areas, and the death toll — officially counted at 64 in the immediate aftermath but later revised dramatically upward by epidemiological studies — was still being tallied. The humanitarian emergency prompted a mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the US mainland: to Florida’s Puerto Rican communities, to New York’s diaspora, and to other cities with established Boricua populations. Estimates of the migration ranged from two hundred thousand to over three hundred thousand individuals leaving Puerto Rico through the remainder of 2017 and into 2018.

For Jamaican-American community organisations in New York, South Florida, and other cities, the Puerto Rican crisis produced an immediate response of solidarity. Emergency relief collections, hosting of evacuee families, community information sessions, and advocacy for federal relief funding characterised the Jamaican-American community’s response alongside that of the broader Caribbean diaspora coalition. The solidarity expressed reflected both the humanitarian imperative and the recognition that the Caribbean diaspora’s shared interests — in federal responsiveness to Caribbean community needs, in fair treatment of US territories with majority non-white populations — were at stake in how the Puerto Rico response was managed.

DACA Rescission: The Congressional Clock

The Trump administration’s September 5, 2017 announcement that it was rescinding DACA, delivered by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, placed Congress under a six-month deadline to legislate a replacement programme for the approximately 700,000 DACA recipients. The administration framed the rescission as a constitutional correction — reversing what it characterised as an executive overreach by President Obama — rather than as a substantive policy choice, while simultaneously making clear that any legislative DACA replacement must be linked to significant border security measures and reductions in legal immigration volumes.

Through Q4 2017, bipartisan negotiations on a DACA replacement produced several framework proposals but no legislative consensus. The “Dream Act” and competing Republican proposals were debated in committee but none achieved the floor time or the vote count required for passage. Jamaican-American community organisations, working alongside the broader Dreamers advocacy coalition, maintained pressure on Congressional members through letter-writing campaigns, in-district meetings, and public advocacy events. The March 5, 2018 deadline loomed as an intensifying focus for Q1 2018 advocacy efforts.

The Travel Ban’s Continued Evolution

The Trump administration’s September 24, 2017 Proclamation 9645 — the third iteration of the travel restriction programme that had begun with the January 2017 executive order — was designed to address the constitutional vulnerabilities that had led federal courts to block the earlier versions. By limiting restrictions to specific countries based on documented national security assessments rather than a blanket Muslim-majority-nation approach, the administration sought a more legally defensible foundation for its travel restrictions. The proclamation covered Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen, with varying levels of restriction for each country.

The Supreme Court’s Q4 decisions allowing the ban to take partial effect while the constitutional challenge was briefed suggested a likely administration victory at the merits stage, a signal that was being closely watched by immigration advocates across the diaspora community. Jamaica is not among the countries targeted, and the direct impact on Jamaican nationals is limited. However, the legal and political dynamics of the travel ban litigation — and what they implied about the scope of executive authority over immigration — remained significant for the broader landscape in which deportation and enforcement policies affecting Jamaican-Americans would be litigated.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Diaspora Implications

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by President Trump on 22 December 2017, enacted the most comprehensive restructuring of the US federal tax code since the Tax Reform Act of 1986. For Jamaican-American diaspora workers, the Act’s provisions have mixed and differentiated impacts. The reduction in individual income tax rates across most brackets provides modest relief for middle-income earners, many of whom are Jamaican-American service sector workers. The doubling of the standard deduction reduces the benefit of itemised deductions for the majority of taxpayers, including mortgage interest and charitable contribution deductions that are relevant for diaspora homeowners and remittance donors.

Most significantly for Jamaica’s remittance economy, proposals during the legislative process to impose an excise tax on international remittance transfers — which would have directly taxed the flows that represent 16 per cent of Jamaica’s GDP — did not survive into the final legislation. Jamaica’s government, the World Bank’s remittance policy team, and advocacy organisations in Washington had monitored these proposals closely, and the remittance tax’s omission from the final legislation was received with relief by Jamaica’s Ministry of Finance and by diaspora community organisations that had been raising the alarm about its potential impact.

Jamaica: Hurricane Season Escaped, Economy Intact

Jamaica’s passage through the catastrophic 2017 hurricane season with limited direct damage — Hurricane Irma passed near the island in early September, producing strong winds and some coastal flooding but not the devastating direct impact that afflicted the British Virgin Islands, Barbuda, Sint Maarten, and Puerto Rico — was a significant relief for an economy whose structural vulnerability to hurricane impact is one of its most persistent development constraints. The tourism sector, which had entered September with strong forward bookings for the winter season, recovered its momentum through Q4 as the immediate hurricane threat passed and visitor confidence returned.

The 8th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference’s planning process began in earnest through Q4 2017, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Jamaica Diaspora Institute initiating the thematic development, logistics planning, and community outreach that would shape the conference’s programme for June 2018. The conference’s planning builds on the 7th Biennial’s legacy, the continued implementation of Jamaica’s National Diaspora Policy (adopted in 2017), and the diaspora community’s sustained engagement through the advisory committee structures established under successive biennial cycles.

Outlook for Q1 2018

The first quarter of 2018 opens with the DACA deadline approaching on 5 March and Congress still without a legislative solution. The Windrush scandal’s pressure on the UK government will continue to build. The 8th Biennial’s planning will accelerate toward its June date. And Jamaica’s tourism sector will enjoy its peak winter season. We report next from 2 April 2018.

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 2018.

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