Alissa Trotz is editor of the In the Diaspora Column
A capacity Caribbean audience, over 400 strong, gathered at the University of Toronto on May 8th to attend a Caricom Diaspora Public Forum, described by Michael Lashley, Consul General of Trinidad and Tobago as the “first event of its kind in all the decades since the countries of the Caribbean have moved into independence” (not entirely accurate, since if memory serves me correctly the West Indian Commission held public meetings in several diasporic cities). Inside the auditorium, the Caricom standard, the flag of the integration movement, was projected on a massive screen, surrounded by smaller flags of all the member states.
The forum, hosted by the Ottawa based high commissioners, was an overwhelmingly Anglophone Caribbean affair, with no representation from Belize, Haiti and Suriname. The evening consisted of six presentations made by all of the high commissioners (Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Eastern Caribbean), on such topics as diaspora investment, migration issues, Canada/Caricom relations and the Caribbean diaspora’s participation in Canada’s political process. High Commissioners made clear that they had come to speak with one regional voice, and this was both unusual and encouraging. The audience was appealed to as members of a Caribbean diasporic community with ideas and material resources to contribute, and as Caribbean-Canadians, one million strong (as noted by Mr. Rajnarine Singh, Guyana’s High Commissioner and Dean of the Caricom diplomatic corps in Ottawa), who could ensure Canadian foreign policy is responsive to the region’s needs.
It is not clear whether this initiative was a one-off event. How did it actually relate to Caricom itself? Inasmuch as the audience, desperate to connect with the Caribbean they have left, was made to feel that they mattered for a few hours that Friday evening, how does the diaspora figure into the regional integration movement and will this even be an agenda item of any significance at the level of Ministerial and Heads of Government meetings?
There is another dimension to this remarkable public forum worth reflecting upon in light of the 30th Heads Summit to be held in Georgetown later this week. From the floor, one man stated, “What effort is being made to maximize resources so that we can speak with one voice? Look around this room…after a while, you don’t hear accents. We have the same heritage. We need to develop a Caribbean country, a Caribbean identity.” The response – extolling the virtues of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, telling the audience that as Caribbean investors they could enjoy incentives in several countries even if they were not originally from there – was clearly in keeping with the decision on the part of the diplomatic corps to present a Caribbean front as if there existed a robust regional infrastructure that could easily accommodate the desire of Caribbean diasporic peoples to reconnect with home.
Clearly these overtures are intended to deliver much-needed resources to the Caribbean. But this public relations exercise is at odds with what is going on in the region, where over the last few weeks we have seen commentators suggest that the regional integration movement is at a serious crossroads, with some even warning that it could be on its deathbed. Many things make it difficult to sustain this rosy picture of unity: Cariforum disagreements over the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU (it remains unclear what the implications of that agreement will be for Caricom trade negotiations with Canada); the tensions arising firstly from some Caricom members’ decision to join Alba and then from the possible economic and political union between Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean (including recent statements made by Prime Minister Manning that other leaders have found problematic); the sense that the CSME has well and truly stalled, in significant ways that Norman Girvan listed in last week’s diaspora column.
Perhaps the most painful issue facing us is intra-regional migration, difficult because to my mind regionalism is about giving institutional form to the ongoing ways in which our people painstakingly stitch a Caribbean tapestry. There is a wonderful verse in that tribute to Caribbean unity by Black Stalin and the Mighty Gabby:
Brother Stalin it’s so nice to see
Trini-Bajan-Guyanese in unity
We love for this region is so strong
From Jamaica come all the way down
Every man from the islands me brother
Every girl from the islands me sister
And I am sure forever it will remain this way
Sans Humanite
The Toronto audience was told that under the CSME, in many islands they would be treated as residents, made to feel at home wherever they traveled. The treatment of Caribbean migrants in Canada also came up several times. Audience members were encouraged to get involved in Canadian politics as Caribbean-Canadians so that they could help ensure a more humane approach to such matters as family reunification, deportations, expediting visas in cases of emergencies.
It is ironic that freedom of movement is presented to entice would-be diaspora investors to ‘come home’, when in fact most Caribbean people do not enjoy freedom of movement in the region, when deportations from North America, so strongly opposed by the diaspora and Caribbean governments, are being practiced right in the Caribbean itself. Barbados has come under the spotlight in recent months, with numerous reports of raids, humiliating treatment (including racial profiling of Indo-Guyanese) and large numbers of deportations, the latter challenged at a press conference given yesterday by Prime Minister David Thompson. But if Barbados appears to be the most egregious offender at the moment, it is certainly not the only country where migration has become an easy political football. In May the Caribbean Media Corporation reported the Antiguan opposition accusing the government of midnight raids and deporting people without due process, and just last Friday there were reports that the government of Antigua and Barbuda will be reviewing its work permit and citizenship policies. When I was in Jamaica earlier this month, there were word of mouth reports of one flight returning with over a dozen Jamaican nationals on board who had been refused entry into Trinidad and Tobago. On the other side, demanding an end to degrading treatment of Caribbean nationals is crucial and highly commendable, but can also be political capital for those who would rather avoid answering difficult questions about the internal reasons behind their countries having such high out-migration rates. And lest our memories be too short, for years the Haitian people have endured racist and discriminatory treatment, not just at the hands of the US coastguards, but from their own neighbours. As a Haitian said at the Toronto gathering, after what we have given to the world, we are treated like slaves, including in other parts of the Caribbean. It is to our regional shame that we have not spoken out on the treatment of Haitians who find themselves in other parts of the Caribbean, or even remembered to relate this prior and ongoing humiliation to what is now more widely felt.
The large audience gathered in Toronto for the diaspora forum came because they wanted to believe in the possibility of something called the Caribbean that could hold us together. And I think the high commissioners that evening wanted to as well. But the image presented to us sits uncomfortably with the divided reality we currently face. After a while, the talk turns to dust. That is the ultimate betrayal. Gabby and Black Stalin capture it best:
Look how the politicians
Trying their best to kill the islands
They must be think you and I is fool.
They power lies in divide and rule…
(This is one of a series of fortnightly columns from Guyanese in the diaspora and others with an interest in issues related to Guyana an the Caribbean)
