We MUST become the CHANGE we want to SEE: Jamaicans Migrating Hinders Growth

These famous words of Mahatma Gandhi has never been more true. Many times we beg and plea for change within our society - whether it be social or political. But the question I ask most is what are we doing to aid in that change, to make that dream we have a reality. The answer? Not enough.


I googled "Jamaica + Third World" and like me, many persons are pondering on the question "Why is Jamaica still a third world country?". The responses are predictable and any reasonable person can answer. A poor economy, a corrupt and unreliable government and of course our devastating crime rate which earned us the title of Murder Capital of the World (nothing new though, we had the title before,i.e Port Royal). 

There are hardly any jobs available and with little being done by the Jamaican government, we are given no hope that there will be any and with murderers killing our labour and threatening civilians, we migrate, become stagnant, complacent and a turnoff for foreign investors. So yes, we are still a third world country mainly because of us. We need a change in traditions.


Realistically we have to accept the fact that the change we want to see, will not be happening anytime soon because of the persons running the country. These are the murders, politicians, accountants, doctors, lawyer etc. I say this because they've been in charge for many years and nothing has changed. We are still underdeveloped.

So who should we rely on? Not the teenagers of today, but the college graduates. If you look at Jamaica's journey to first world status campaign Vision 2030, the year suggests that our graduates are the ones who we should be leaning on for this political, economic and social change. Yes of course, that's 19 years from now, the leaders of today will no longer be leaders, they'll be dependents.

In an article published in Jamaica Observer Dr. Baugh, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade stated "...Jamaica has lost 54,288 skilled professionals to North America alone over the past 20 years. This number represents 32 per cent of the total output of Jamaica's education system,"

So this is the route i'm taking the post, Jamaicans Migrating.  This is a trend that needs to end if we have any hopes of Jamaica surviving or developing. Understandably, in a poor economy with no jobs available and the ever growing cost of living, migrating to find work is the best choice. However don't neglect your country. When all our skilled and educated brains migrate leaving us with little human resources, the country remains stagnant. And therefore they aid in the hindering of the country that THEY want to change. Ironic?

So what should they do? they can't stay in a suffering country and become a part of the high unemployment rate, we already know what that will cause. So leave, migrate and find work, but remember to come back and SOON.

Sir Author Lewis an economist spoke of development and what we should do in order to develop. He posited the Industrialization by Invitation theory saying that we should lure foreign investors and to persuade them into setting up in our country, but it doesn't stop there. he says we should then work for them, learn, then leave and use what we learned from them to start our our businesses. The theory continues, you should familiarize yourself with it, but that's the part I'll use.

When our graduates migrate to foreign countries and get their jobs, they shouldn't stay there forever. Return to Jamaica and teach us, like Author Lewis says, what you've learnt - the international standards - and start your own business. Employment increases, GDP rises and Standard of Living soars!

Obviously this will only be if we also deal with the other factors affecting growth. But the point still stands, We Must Become the Change We Want to See

Categories: development , social commentary