Open doors and minds within region
Guest editorial
Guyana Chronicle
August 21, 2004
A NEWS item in our Monday edition, captioned Nassar Knocks CSME: Guyanese Must Be Controlled, highlights the extent of the difficulty confronting us as the new world order of globalisation takes root.
CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is but a microcosm of this phenomenon and, while we do not discount the deep-seated fear it engenders, we must not allow it to cloud every discussion on immigration and dictate policy.
Like most countries, Barbados has to deal with the issue of mobility of talent. It indeed presents one of the most curious paradoxes of economic life. Nobody disputes that talent makes a positive impact on any competitive environment.
Consequently, demand will always outstrip supply, and the search for the best and brightest will never cease. Yet, the enthusiasm appears to wane when the source of supply is foreign.
Unfortunately, the reaction becomes emotional, not economic, plaguing many a debate on immigration. Muhammad Nassar was quoted as saying that CSME was going to hurt this country economically and we were going “to have to put a restriction on migration”.
In resisting this dangerous posture, politicians have two choices. They can take the easy path by pandering to the illogical insecurities of the people and compromise the future of the country.
Or they can learn from the winning formula of those countries that opened their doors to the world and boosted their economic fortunes. Attracting talent from outside helps to keep the workforce from shrinking and labour costs from rising.
We are not here advocating wholesale immigration, as other mitigating factors like schooling, housing and transportation and health services have to be carefully considered.
But Guyanese are coming here for a better life.
The Caribbean is a small melting pot of largely low-skilled populations. In this regard Mr Nassar may have a point in so far as engineers and accountants are not flooding our market, but there is not an oversupply of these professionals in the region.
It once was, and remains in some cases, that successful economies grew on the back of natural resources, either indigenous or appropriated by colonialism.
The rest of the world did not fare as well, except those who invested in their human resources, like Singapore.
Education is therefore a critical resource optimisation.
Like Singapore, Barbados has invested heavily in education, but future emphasis must be shifted to science and technology.
To stem the flow of uncontrolled immigration, there should be harmonised policies throughout the region to correct social and economic imbalances among countries. This is where the urgency of CSME comes in.
The economic advantages for Barbados are obvious, yet we seem unprepared to embrace this aspect of globalisation.
To turn our backs on our CARICOM family would not only be a grave mistake, but an abdication of our responsibility. (From Thursday’s Daily Nation of Barbados)