By Premier Mark Brantley
The Caribbean’s Opportunity for a Brain Gain
Recent news from our friend and neighbour, the United States of America, reinforces the new approach to immigration not just in the United States but across the developed world. Each morning we in the Caribbean wake to more “Breaking News”. Yesterday it was small States being forced to accept deportees from 3rd countries. Today it is that immigrant visa processing for some Caribbean States has been suspended by the US.
At each announcement, the people of the Caribbean howl in dismay and blame their leaders. Regional leadership wrings its hands with cries of “woe is me” and the usual statement is issued that we are engaging diplomatically to resolve issues. A certain level of hysteria is setting in almost as if Caribbean people think themselves Stateless and homeless.
The truth though is that for far too long developed countries around the world particularly the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and parts of Europe have benefitted from the migration to those countries of the best and brightest minds from the Caribbean and the rest of the developing world. This phenomenon referred to as the “brain drain” has contributed to the advancement of those countries whilst simultaneously depriving the Caribbean of the contribution that such persons could have made to our regional development.
So I here propose a different regional approach. Do not be dismayed by the new immigration policies of the United States and others. Every country has the right to set its own immigration policy. America is doing what it deems to be in the best interests of America. The Caribbean should embrace the opportunities that this new approach presents for our region. We should:
*Re-orient our thinking as a region and as a people and start to look for opportunities within the Caribbean, Latin America, our motherland Africa and the global South.
*Send out the call for those in our vast Diaspora to come back home to lend their talents to Caribbean development
*Let the message resonate from the shores of Miami to the mountains of New York that the Caribbean is calling its people to come home
*Make land available and develop a range of fiscal incentives to encourage our people to return home. In Nevis for example we offered returning university graduates land for EC$1 per square foot.
*Tell our people: when you’re coming bring your wealth with you; bring your ideas with you; bring your entrepreneurial spirit with you; bring your training with you; bring your education insights and innovation with you; sell your home in Brooklyn and buy a home in Bridgetown; sell your shares on the New York Stock Exchange and buy shares on the Eastern Caribbean Stock Exchange; transfer your bank accounts from Bank of New York to Bank of Nevis.
*Create greater opportunities for intra-regional migration, business establishment, investment and travel. Miami is fabulous but so too is Castries and Kingston.
Let this crisis become an opportunity to shift our generational brain drain into a brain gain. Let us not become unwanted guests in foreign lands. It’s time for our people to come home.
Hon Mark Brantley. Premier of Nevis, Leader of the Opposition St. Kitts and Nevis
