An­tho­ny Wil­son

Last week, in this space, some of the eco­nom­ic rea­sons be­hind the ap­par­ent­ly sud­den crack­down on Ja­maicans look­ing for work in T&T were ex­plored.Since In­de­pen­dence in 1962, thou­sands of T&T na­tion­als have left the coun­try to pur­sue ed­u­ca­tion­al and em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties around the world. And in that pe­ri­od, thou­sands of non-T&T na­tion­als have left their coun­tries of birth to gain em­ploy­ment in T&T.

In a post-In­de­pen­dence, re­gion­al con­text, the rea­son most Cari­com na­tion­als choose to mi­grate from their coun­tries of birth to oth­er coun­tries would be eco­nom­ic. In the 1960s, hun­dreds of T&T na­tion­als left this coun­try to work in the oil re­finer­ies of the Dutch Caribbean and Venezuela. In the '70s, dur­ing the pe­ri­od of the oil boom, thou­sands of con­struc­tion work­ers left Grena­da and St Vin­cent to seek their for­tunes in T&T and to con­tribute to build­ing the coun­try.

Up to now, most of this coun­try's car­pen­ters, ma­sons and builders are ei­ther from those is­lands or are the de­scen­dants of the orig­i­nal mi­grants. And it is true to state that the oil boom of the '70s would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the con­struc­tion work­ers from Grena­da and St Vin­cent.