Among the big talking points of the current immigration debate in the United States is the type of labor that should be admitted into the country. Many believe the entry of "unskilled" laborers should be severely restricted. Jamaican-born Eleanor Brown, a Reginald Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School, is not one of them. Shortly after addressing the "Conference on the Caribbean: A 20/20 Vision " last month, Brown explained to Caribbean Today's Managing Editor Gordon Williams why more of the Caribbean's labor force should allowed to go overseas.
Works like Wheatley's and [Harriet Jacobs]' remind us how important it is to document our history with authenticity. History tells us of the need to write our own stories in our own words, for accuracy, for validation. And this is exactly why writers like Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Alice Walker and Louise Bennett Coverly (Jamaica) have revolutionized the written word and established themselves as role models for all of us. Positive images. Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker uses the word "womanist" in her works to refer to the liberation of black women. Through her famous novel "The Color Purple" and other works, she has revolutionized literature in the New World and given great insights into the traditions, beliefs, history, and values of people of African ancestry. The central theme in all of her work becomes the flower of hope that grows out of all despair. Black women writers have created for us a window to the world through which we can make real-life connections. From them we have received portraits in courage and a validation of ourselves. Their words constantly remind us that hope is eternal and that beauty can rise from adversity, as is so aptly expressed in the poignant declaration by Maya Angelou, the first female to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration, "And still I rise."
From the United States' perspective, it is very, very important for the (President George W) Bush administration to understand the location and the reality of the Caribbean's small economies. You cannot ignore them or you will have problems. You have somebody like (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez in the (Caribbean) region that is giving them (the U.S.) a headache. The (U.S.) better fortify the small countries or they will go over to whoever is helping them. People must survive and people must live. For the Caribbean in particular, it is a historical event. We are meeting as a Caribbean people. We seem to be sharing the same concerns every other CARICOMmember shares. From the U.S. standpoint, I really don't know because a lot of the feedback that we've had from our heads of state, we've heard this before... over the years and I'm not sure this is any different. The only thing that might be a little different now is the deportation of criminals to our shores and I don't believe that the U.S. does not know what the implication of that is. We are always seeking financial support from them, so to send us people who have been convicted for crimes that we don't have in the islands, somebody, somewhere, must know.
The arrests came as authorities investigated the boat accident involving Haitian, Jamaican and Bahamian migrants. The U.S. Coast Guard said four people were killed and 11 rescued after the boat carrying the Caribbean migrants capsized. The fatal voyage reportedly began in The Bahamas, and ended when U.S. Coast Guard crews rescued the survivors. The criminal complaint said six of the Caribbean migrants interviewed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified Davis and [George Lewis] as the alleged smugglers.
"I cannot emphasize these things enough," he said. "People need to be extra alert and be very careful with what they're taking to and from the airport." "It's a tragedy because we don't have that kind of culture at all," he said. "It is quite unfortunate. "We can have all kinds of religions in the Caribbean, but we must have peace, love and respect for each other and for the outside world." he added. "I am troubled. We don't need that (alleged plot)."
[Dennis Johnson] received TJB's Pioneer Award and Johnson was recognized by the United States government as a Caribbean icon. He was presented with a U.S.
The TPS designation for Haiti will remain in effect through July 22, but Haitian nationals who have continuously resided in the U.S. since Jan. 12, 2010 must file their applications for TPS no later than Jan. 18. Failure to submit the required applications with any required fees and the biometrie fee, or a properly documented fee waiver request, will result in the rejection of the application. TPS was granted to Haitians following the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010, which claimed over 200,000 lives in Haiti.
In 1996, the colleges and universities of America yielded thousands of graduates, 27% of them black, and of those, 12% were of Caribbean descent. These young Caribbean graduates are a unique entity. They represent a conglomerate of knowledge that could be utilized in America or in the Caribbean. Each year, a new group of Caribbean graduates faces an interesting dilemma: to build a life in the country that has educated them or to build a life in the country that holds their heritage, culture, and traditions. Should a young man from Jamaica who has come to the U.S. to become a doctor not go back to Jamaica at the end of his schooling armed with and American degree and better his own country? Should the young woman from Belize with a B.S. in biology from Cornell not return to Belize and put her knowledge to work for the betterment of her country?
Jamaica is doing so well that it was not even in the top 14 nations receiving the most deportees in 2009. Instead, for the Caribbean region, the top three nations receiving the most deportees last year, were the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti. Mexico continued to lead the deportees statistics table. Mexican nationals accounted for 86 percent of the 613,003 aliens apprehended in 2009. The next leading countries were Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, China, and Brazil. A total of 393,000 foreign nationals were removed from the United States last year, the seventh consecutive record high. Of that number, 128,000 were known criminal aliens.
The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years, as in the case of Jamaica and Haiti.
