There are many im­ped­i­ments to growth with­in in­di­vid­ual coun­tries. Sim­i­lar di­vi­sions im­pede the flow of goods, ser­vices, cap­i­tal, peo­ple and ideas be­tween coun­tries. Any­thing that im­pedes eco­nom­ic growth and de­vel­op­ment is cost­ly. Re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion al­lows coun­tries to over­come these cost­ly di­vi­sions by in­te­grat­ing goods, ser­vices and fac­tors’ mar­kets, thus fa­cil­i­tat­ing the flow of trade, cap­i­tal, en­er­gy, peo­ple and ideas. This was the orig­i­nal in­tent of the for­ma­tion of The Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) on Ju­ly 4, 1973, some 50 years ago, mak­ing Cari­com the old­est sur­viv­ing in­te­gra­tion move­ment in the de­vel­op­ing world.

The Cari­com Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME) was meant to deep­en the arrange­ment be­tween Cari­com’s mem­ber states by cre­at­ing a sin­gle en­larged eco­nom­ic space through the re­moval of re­stric­tions im­ped­ing the free move­ment of goods, ser­vices, peo­ple, cap­i­tal and tech­nol­o­gy. It con­fers the right on every Cari­com na­tion­al to es­tab­lish a busi­ness in any par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­ber state. Ar­ti­cle 46 of the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas gives Cari­com na­tion­als the right to work or en­gage in gain­ful em­ploy­ment in any par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­ber state with­out the need for a work per­mit.

This right is a lim­it­ed priv­i­lege, avail­able on­ly to those who fall with­in the 12 cat­e­gories that have been ap­proved for free move­ment. It does not con­fer a right of per­ma­nent res­i­den­cy or cit­i­zen­ship. In­deed, it guar­an­tees a per­son on­ly six months of em­ploy­ment if they have a Caribbean com­mu­ni­ty Skills Cer­tifi­cate is­sued by the coun­try from which the per­son orig­i­nates.

To stay for an in­def­i­nite pe­ri­od, a skills cer­tifi­cate must be is­sued by the host coun­try with­in that six-month pe­ri­od. This in­volves a cum­ber­some pro­ce­dure in which the per­son must first ap­ply to the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry to be “eval­u­at­ed” be­fore pro­ceed­ing to the Im­mi­gra­tion De­part­ment to be “eval­u­at­ed” again be­fore be­ing giv­en leave to stay in­def­i­nite­ly. Why is this process not seam­less?

The par­ent act, “The Im­mi­gra­tion (Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Skilled Na­tion­als) (Amend­ment) Act” was in­tro­duced in 1996 to recog­nise the first of the now 12 cat­e­gories, grad­u­ates of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies. It was not passed and pro­claimed in T&T un­til 2001. The sec­ond amend­ment of the act was passed and pro­claimed in 2003 widen­ing the cat­e­gories el­i­gi­ble for free move­ment be­yond uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ates to in­clude artistes, mu­si­cians, sports peo­ple and me­dia work­ers.

The lat­est amend­ment, wel­comed by the Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs in the press this week was The Im­mi­gra­tion (Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Skilled Na­tion­als)(Amend­ment) Act, 2022 was pro­claimed this month. It adds agri­cul­tur­al work­ers, se­cu­ri­ty guards, beau­ty ser­vice prac­ti­tion­ers, bar­bers, non-grad­u­ate nurs­es and non-grad­u­ate teach­ers to the cat­e­gories of work­ers el­i­gi­ble for free move­ment with Cari­com. The new cat­e­gories added to the list are nei­ther in­spir­ing nor add to the eco­nom­ic dy­namism of the re­gion.

We sup­port the in­te­gra­tion process but note that the re­gion is sim­ply re­cov­er­ing lost ground not mov­ing for­ward as peo­ple moved freely across the re­gion be­fore in­de­pen­dence. Cari­com has tak­en 50 years to recog­nise 12 cat­e­gories of work­ers who are el­i­gi­ble for free move­ment in the re­gion. This can hard­ly be con­sid­ered progress. But there are oth­er press­ing is­sues. In­ter-re­gion­al move­ment of goods and peo­ple is be­dev­illed by in­ad­e­quate trans­porta­tion links which are as in­fre­quent as they are cost­ly. Se­ri­ous eco­nom­ic chal­lenges lie ahead for the re­gion. Ac­tion is re­quired to halt this long march to­wards seem­ing ir­rel­e­vance.