GUYANA: OPINION – Remigration is not the answer

Nov 15, 2020  Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom – Kaieteur News

The PPP’s Robert Persaud’s diaspora and remigration policy is misguided. It is no different from the policy pursued by the APNU+AFC because it is premised on limiting push factors and encouraging persons to return.

Recent data – much of which is questionable – suggests that more than half of the country’s population resides outside of Guyana, the majority in North America. Canada and the United States are where the majority of overseas-based Guyanese are to be found.     

The largest net migration from Guyana occurred during the 1970s and 1980s. While migration has continued and remains high, the net migration during that period was mainly responsible for the country’s massive brain drain and capital flight.

People fled socialism, political victimization and economic hardships. From the moment, Forbes Burnham declared that Guyana was on the path to socialism, property owners decided that they had to get out with their children. Most of the Portuguese community left, with thousands headed for Canada. They took not only their skills but also their money.

The economic hardships which intensified in the 1980s led to a second wave. People ran in droves.

Migration has continued. But it was those two decades which did the most harm to Guyana’s economy.

The continued migration of persons up to the present signals the inefficacy of any policy aimed at limiting the push factors. People will continue to migrate so long as the present division of income in the world exists. Persons will move to higher-income countries, seeking better jobs, higher standards of living, better education for their children and safer communities in which to live.

Any remigration policy therefore which seeks to redress push factors is bound to fail. It is an exercise in futility. All the prospects of oil will not keep Guyanese here. Those who can do better, especially, the young will seek greener pastures.

Those who leave continue to contribute to Guyana. Migrants fed and clothed the people of Guyana for decades through the sending of barrels and cash transfers. There is hardly a family on the coastland – rich or poor – which has not been assisted by remittances from overseas. There was time when some families would not have been able to survive without overseas help.

This still happens. Robert Persaud should take a look at the daily lines outside of remittance agencies to grasp the extent to which households still rely on remittances.

Instead of trying to reverse migration, we should be encouraging it. The country earns more from migration than from most of its economic sectors. Last year, Guyana earned US$374 M from remittances. This is more than the money the country earned from rice and bauxite. It is more than 10 times what the country earned from sugar.

Thousands of Guyanese workers who are employed in Suriname, Venezuela and Brazil. Thousands more are employed in the Caribbean. They are supporting their families here. Many of them would not have been able to do so if they had been living in Guyana.

We need to be encouraging non-resident Guyanese to come home for holidays not to stay. We need them to come here and spend their money. Thousands of Guyanese came for Cricket World Cup and impact was immediately felt in the hospitality sector. They were eating and drinking and having a good time and spending money. The same thing happened for the 50th anniversary of Guyana’s Independence.

Persons came home in droves and you immediately noticed the impact. We need to encourage more to come for Christmas, Diwali, Easter and Phagwah.

This idea also of trying to tap the skills of non-resident Guyanese is also pointless. Guyana cannot afford to pay skilled Guyanese to return to take up local jobs. The opportunities should be offered to those who are here and who more often can do the job far better than those overseas-based Guyanese.

Promoting reverse migration or having citizens return to Guyana is also not going to be highly successful. Those who may want to come back permanently are those who are retired and whose bones ache when the winter steps in. They are not bringing much money and much skills. They are looking for Guyana as a retirement home, only to flee as quickly whenever the crime wave spikes.

A remigration policy should not be the major plank of any diaspora policy. The diaspora should be treated not as a separate entity but as part of an extended market. The diaspora should be Guyana’s Region 11. It is a fairly sizeable market which should be tapped as a destination for local exports and a source of remittances and investment.

Instead of encouraging persons to return, we should be encouraging them to leave. Guyana will develop faster that way!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Kaieteur News.) …. or the moderator of this blog.