Region urged to implement policies to keep skilled workers at home

Barbados and other regional economies are being urged to put policies in place to better manage migration and address factors contributing to some of their brightest and best seeking greener pastures outside the Caribbean.

The issue of migration came under the microscope on Tuesday during a panel discussion that formed part of the World Bank’s virtual #AskWBCaribbean Series.

World Bank officials zoomed in on mass emigration of high-skilled individuals, the need for policies for better bilateral and regional mobility, return migration, and the need for the maximisation of benefits of remittances.

World Bank officials also introduced and discussed aspects of the World Development Report 2023: Migration, Refugees and Societies.

Programme Leader for Human Development with the World Bank, Emre Özaltin said the creation of quality jobs was an area which required special attention in an effort to keep highly skilled individuals and even attract workers and more investment from around the world to the Caribbean.

“For a lot of migration issues, we call these the push factors that cause people to look for opportunities elsewhere. So, a key part of the equation has to be for governments to work on improving the availability of quality jobs in the region,” he said.

“I think part of the solution also has to be detailed workforce planning. So, what are the skills that are going to be needed in these countries in the future, what are the projected numbers for migration and emigration and what are the number of skilled workers we are producing.”

Pointing out that people did not have to leave the region to be working for a foreign entity, he said Caribbean lawmakers should also be thinking about how to address brain drain in that way.

Özaltin also questioned the impact digital nomads were having on economies in the region, saying “the benefits for host countries for now, are not certain”.

He said while the main benefit seemed to be to the local economy in terms of consumption and other spending, “these should be weighed against tax implications and efforts required to oversee these programmes”.

Economist Pascal Juapart, co-director of the report, said the region should invest in and strengthen systems that will allow free movement of skills from one country to the next, in the areas in which the skills are most needed.

He also underlined the importance of Caribbean countries reaching out to their diaspora while identifying areas in which they can help with development.

“There are a number of initiatives and policies that countries could consider, starting with a proper mapping of the diaspora in the various destination countries, then looking at the current migration policies, or lack thereof, that are currently existing in those countries and work with the private sector and other organisations to try to strengthen the links between origin countries and the diaspora,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Research Fellow at the SALISES, University of the West Indies Natalie Dietrich Jones expressed concern the region lacked policies that catered to individuals who were migrating to the Caribbean.

She said while a number of Caribbean countries have signed on to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, they have not ratified those treaties.

“That has a ripple effect in terms of how policy is developed in the countries, because if they have not signalled their commitment to the international community in these areas then it is going to affect how national legislation is framed,” she said.

“Those commitments mean they have a duty of care to migrants and that duty of care should be reflected in either national legislation or domestic policy.”

Pointing to the situation in Trinidad and Tobago where there are a number of Venezuelan migrants seeking to settle, she indicated that “challenges come” when people who are not from the Caribbean Community and their qualifications are not being verified or due to perceived language barriers.

She said it will become increasingly important for CARICOM to look outside the region to help fill the skills gap.

“So one of the recommendations would be that there is skills recognition and verification for individuals that are not only from CARICOM. This will become important in the future as we are talking about ageing populations and declining fertility that is broadly affecting the region.

“We will need to import skills, and the question is where will they come from . . . if they are coming from French, Dutch and Spanish-speaking countries then we will need a system in place to recognise the skills they are bringing with them,” the SALISES research fellow explained.

Dietrich Jones also pointed to the need for improved collection and recording of data that will be useful in creating migration policies.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb