A RICH vein of talent and expertise resides in the Jamaican diaspora dispersed in many different places throughout the world. A rough estimate is that some 2.5 million of our countrymen, and women, live mainly in North America and Great Britain.
The latest Gleaner Editors' Forum was told yesterday that 42 per cent of this number have attained tertiary education, one of the highest percentages of such diaspora anywhere in the world. The Gleaner forum followed a symposium at the University of the West Indies on Tuesday designed to explore ways to energise the potential of the diaspora in contributing to our economic development.
Guest speaker at the symposium, Sir William 'Bill' Morris, Chancellor of the University of Technology, sees giving Jamaicans overseas the right to vote in local elections as the best way to involve them as stakeholders in the future of the country to make up for what he calls the 'democratic deficit'.
The forum explored the state of remittances, with presenters from among an erudite representation of the Jamaica migrants predicting some fallout in this area. They reported negative consequences from the Patriot Act as a post-9/11 tightening of the treatment of immigrants. The so-called 'Dream Act' promises better particularly for the 'undocumented' youngsters of illegal migrants who could ultimately be able to sponsor their elders.
Government has set up a number of committees headed by private sector leaders to work on how best to develop two-way traffic between those who live here and those who live abroad. We applaud these efforts. Steps must be taken through our embassies and overseas missions, including Tourist Board offices, to keep in contact with Jamaicans clustered primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom.
They should be facilitated in reinvesting in Jamaica and using the skills which so many of them possess to further the nation's agenda in getting international support for its policies. Many, we are sure, would be prepared to come to Jamaica for short visits to help solve technical problems with which we might be grappling. We should also welcome Jamaicans who after many years of working abroad wish to return but who nevertheless love their country of origin and, if shown the way, are prepared to contribute to its development.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
