Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — July to September 2014

Published: 2 October 2014 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• Chikungunya: a major public health emergency for Jamaica and the Caribbean: The chikungunya virus — a mosquito-borne arboviral disease producing acute fever and severe joint pain that can persist for months or years — swept through Jamaica and the wider Caribbean in an outbreak that overwhelmed health services, produced mass absenteeism from work and school, and became the dominant domestic concern for the Jamaican community at home and abroad through Q3 2014. The virus, new to the Western Hemisphere but well-established in Africa and Asia, arrived in the Caribbean via Saint Martin in December 2013 and had by mid-2014 spread to virtually every island. Jamaica’s Ministry of Health declared a public health emergency, hospitals reported patients ten times normal volumes, and the diaspora’s concerns for family members at home were acute. Diaspora community members themselves faced risk: chikungunya was now circulating in Florida, and travellers returning from the Caribbean were reporting cases in New York and Toronto.
• Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: Jamaica’s sprint dominance on display: The XX Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow from 23 July to 3 August 2014, provided a platform for Jamaican athletic excellence at an event whose Caribbean community significance in the UK was considerable. Usain Bolt anchored Jamaica’s 4×100 metres relay team to gold and competed in the 100 metres, where he won gold in 9.98 seconds in difficult conditions. The Jamaican squad’s overall medal performance confirmed the island’s position as the premier sprint nation in a field that included the full strength of England, Canada, and Australia. For British-Jamaican communities, the Commonwealth Games in Scotland provided a moment of dual pride in Jamaican athletic achievement and the Commonwealth framework that had connected Britain and the Caribbean for generations.
• Scotland’s independence referendum: a No vote by 55–45: Scotland’s 18 September independence referendum — which produced a 55.3 per cent No, 44.7 per cent Yes result on a remarkable 84.6 per cent turnout — was followed closely by British-Jamaican communities for whom the potential break-up of the United Kingdom raised questions about identity, citizenship, and the constitutional framework within which their community life was organised. The result’s “No” outcome preserved the UK’s constitutional structure, but the scale of the Yes vote and the demographic patterns within it — younger voters and those in certain urban areas much more likely to vote Yes — suggested that the UK’s constitutional questions were far from settled.
• Ferguson: Michael Brown’s killing and the community’s response: The killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer on 9 August 2014 — and the subsequent militarised police response to peaceful protest in the St. Louis suburb — produced a national reckoning with race, policing, and the unfinished business of American racial justice that the Caribbean-American community engaged with from its own distinct but overlapping position. The “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” movement and the “Black Lives Matter” phrase that had been circulating since Zimmerman’s acquittal in July 2013 now found their moment in Ferguson’s streets.
• Ebola: West African outbreak, diaspora vigilance: The West African Ebola outbreak — concentrated in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia — was dominating global health news through Q3 2014, with the first case confirmed in the United States on 30 September (the publication date’s immediate context). While Jamaica’s Caribbean location placed it geographically distant from the epicentre, health authorities’ guidance on travel precautions and the diaspora community’s concern about family members involved in West African travel or health work required careful attention. Caribbean health ministries issued precautionary travel advisories.
• Remittances and Jamaica economy Q3 2014: Bank of Jamaica data for Q3 2014 showed continued positive year-on-year remittance growth, with the US source market maintaining its strength and the UK source market delivering steady flows. Total 2014 annual flows were on track for approximately US$2.2 billion. The chikungunya outbreak’s economic impact — through absenteeism, healthcare costs, and reduced productivity — was being assessed by the Planning Institute, with early estimates suggesting a meaningful GDP impact through the worst months of the outbreak.

Introduction: Health, Race, and Sport

Q3 2014 brought a public health emergency to Jamaica’s shores, racial justice to American streets, and sprint gold to Glasgow’s tracks — a quarter of extraordinary breadth and consequence for the diaspora community’s multiple engagements with the world. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, PAHO, and Caribbean diaspora media through 30 September 2014.

Chikungunya: A Caribbean-Wide Emergency

The chikungunya outbreak’s impact on Jamaica through Q3 2014 was severe enough to be described by health authorities as the worst public health event to affect the island since the 2009 influenza pandemic. The virus’s presentation — high fever, intense joint pain that could be temporarily debilitating, and a weeks-long recovery — produced mass absenteeism from schools and workplaces at rates the economy had not experienced in years. Health facilities were overwhelmed: rural health centres were seeing ten to fifteen times normal patient volumes, and Kingston’s public hospitals were stretched beyond normal capacity.

For the diaspora community, the outbreak produced two distinct concerns. The first was for family members in Jamaica: community members were calling home and sending money for medications, fluids, and private medical consultations that the overwhelmed public health system could not always provide. The second was for diaspora community members themselves: Florida’s cases of locally transmitted chikungunya — the first in the continental United States — and the concentration of Jamaican-American communities in high-Aedes-mosquito-density areas of South Florida and the New York metropolitan area meant that the outbreak’s Caribbean dimensions had a direct US community health implication.

Glasgow: Commonwealth Pride

The Glasgow Commonwealth Games provided British-Jamaican communities with a particularly resonant setting for their dual pride in Jamaican athletic achievement and Commonwealth identity. Glasgow’s sizeable and well-established Caribbean community — and the Games’ UK hosting — made the event an occasion for Caribbean community visibility and celebration across Britain in a way that the London 2012 Olympics, despite their scale, had also enabled. Bolt’s relay anchor leg, delivered with the characteristic theatrical timing that had made him the world’s most recognised athlete, was received with the warmth of a performer who understood his audience.

Outlook for Q4 2014

Q4 2014 brings the Ferguson grand jury decision — expected before year’s end — the US midterm elections in November, the Ebola outbreak’s trajectory, the chikungunya recovery, and the Christmas remittance season. Jamaica’s 6th Biennial is at its six-month mark. We report next from 2 January 2015.

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, PAHO, and PICA. All figures and developments are accurate as of the publication date, 2 October 2014.

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