AN INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) working paper confirms the sad news that the Caribbean has lost some 70 per cent of its workforce to emigration, among the highest emigration rates in the world. And what is equally tragic is that losses due to high-skill migration outweigh official remittances to the Caribbean region, leaving it in a net deficit position.
As far as Jamaica is concerned, the report confirms what we already know, namely that some 50 per cent of the labour force with tertiary education has left the island for greener pastures abroad. The figure for departing persons with a secondary education is 30 per cent. If these statistics are correct, it means that the overall workforce remaining in Jamaica has become an enclave of mediocrity and discontent, a breeding ground for criminality and corruption. So Jamaica now has the dubious distinction of not only being the murder capital of the world, but the country whose migration rate is also among the highest in the world.
The exodus is no doubt due to lack of opportunities for employment and career advancement which is the inevitable result of an anaemic performance of the Jamaican economy over the past 10 years. This is an issue that the candidates aspiring to the leadership of the People's National Party should address in detail in the days remaining for the election.
The migration statistics revealed by the IMF study give rise also to a strange irony. Because the Jamaican education system has built into it a systemic elitist element, well-trained graduates at the top level have little difficulty in being accepted by other countries while the majority of poorly-educated citizens at the bottom of the ladder are locked in to face an increasingly hopeless situation.
The IMF report brings into focus a grim reality which no amount of shibboleths and sweet talk can hide. And if the workforce loss to migration is greater than the benefits from remittances, then we are in deep trouble and certain priorities will have to be re-ordered.
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