Migration has far-reaching impact, says UK-based researcher

Apr 16, 2014 News

Although by 1992 Guyana was able to have free and fair elections which saw the People’s Progressive Party returning to power after 28 years, the threat of instability was imminent.
The country’s economic growth at this time stood at seven per cent and there was a continuing trend of emigration, even of East Indians, the traditional supporters of the ruling party.

Research Officer, Simona Vezzoli

By 1997 through 2008 Guyana was faced with a stagnant economy and increasing corruption, coupled with the shrinkage of the agriculture and bauxite industries. Added to this, there was evidence of criminal activities in the economy and the State, which resulted in the country’s per capita Gross Domestic Product being just above Haiti at about US$1,125 per year.
The foregoing details were contained in a report of the preliminary findings of a research project conducted by experienced Research Officer attached to the Oxford University, Simona Vezzoli.
The findings of Vezzoli’s project entitled ‘Historical migration trends and factors that shape Guyanese migration’ were presented last week Wednesday at a public forum held at the National Library, Church Street, Georgetown. The research project is one that chronicled the migration trend of Guyanese over the period 1960 through 2010.
According to Vezzoli, although her findings are based on preliminary observations and insights, she will be conducting further analysis in the next few months in order to refine them.
The Researcher, through her preliminary findings, concluded that factors important in Guyanese emigration can be categorised in the three broad groups of ‘origin country factors’, ‘receiving country factors’ and ‘migrant networks and migration feedback effects’.
The ‘origin country factors’, according to Vezzoli’s findings, were influenced by the decolonisation process and independence which led to a short-term but critical migration effect. These factors, it was found, were also linked to authoritarianism, insecurity and discrimination. Vezzoli also found that the effect of long-term emigration was associated to policies relating to agriculture, nationalisation, economic performance, education and national service.
Her findings also highlighted that among the negative impacts of emigration were: loss of young and entrepreneurial individuals, loss of resources which were allocated to educate departing migrants, potential introduction of new democratic ideas through the Diaspora and the fact that high emigration reflects negatively on the State’s ability to provide for its citizen.
However, Vezzoli’s findings further found that emigration effects may not all be unexpected and negative since States could, at times, take advantage of such situations.
Moreover, the positive outcomes of emigration could include: reduced unemployment problems, reduced pressure on social services such as schooling, health care, housing, among others; reduced political opposition, that is, people ‘vote with their feet’.
Added to this, Vezzoli concluded in her findings that it is expected that emigration could help to create balance of payments through financial remittances.
And when the ‘receiving country factors’ were considered, it was found that they impacted the closure of border regime with the former colonial state; prompted immigration policies in alternative destinations, either opening or restricting; categorising of migrants and even influenced the timing of policy changes.
As a result there were policy changes in economics, segmentation of the labour market, higher education, recruitment programmes, among others.
Vezzoli in her findings speculated that through ‘migrant networks’ there may be a cumulative effect of migration stimulated by compatriots. As such it was concluded that migrant networks were able to create a bridge that facilitate migration, and sometimes help by-pass obstacles created by immigration policies and even lead to migrants becoming ‘gatekeepers’.
The offshoot was therefore a shift of important emigration determinants from country of origin to country of destination, as it relates to immigration policies and migrant networks, according to Vezzoli’s findings. Moreover, it was deduced that migrant networks and policies fostered family reunification.
And so based on Vezzoli’s findings, emigration is a response to a set of factors that are intertwined and evolve over time and not necessarily solely the economy. However it was underscored that “the state plays an important role in shaping these factors, both in origin and receiving countries.”