With construction stagnant in her native Jamaica, architect Mandilee Newton left one island for another ﾗ taking a design job in oil- and gas-rich Trinidad.
By finding a position across the Caribbean, the bespectacled Newton, 27, said she managed to boost her career without migrating to Europe or North America like so many skilled workers from the region.
“If you want to be an architect in the Caribbean, Trinidad is the place to be,” she said.
Workers seeking better jobs have island-hopped for generations, but a regional integration project is now making it easier for professionals. Thousands have lined up to move under recently eased restrictions ﾗ a migration boost critics say will worsen economic disparities.
Before, professionals seeking to work in another island had to be hired in advance by a company that would help them apply for a work permit ﾗ a complicated and lengthy process that often took months. Now, under the new rules for the Caribbean Single Market and Economy ﾗ an evolving economic union that groups together more than 6 million people in 12 nations ﾗ workers with university degrees or other special skills can register for a certificate that allows them to move before they secure a job.
Those allowed under the special-skills provision in-clude calypso musicians, performing artists and journalists.
Some on small islands have expressed concern they will be overrun by better-educated professionals from their larger neighbors.
“Antigua is tiny compared to Trinidad and Jamaica. It’s clear we are not going to be able to compete with their larger talent pool,” said Winston Derrick, a newspaper publisher and radio station owner in Antigua. It’s too soon, however, to know whether the concerns have any basis, said Esteban Perez, a United Nations economist based in Trinidad who has studied the Caribbean Single Market.
So far, there haven’t been enough migrants to harm any of the member nation’s economies, he said.
About 2,000 professionals already are taking advantage of the new flexibility under the Caribbean Single Market.
Some, like Newton, have secured higher salaries. Others, such as Trinidadian community development planner Saffrey Brown, 30, said career opportunities seemed more fulfilling elsewhere.
“Yeah there’s a boom in Trinidad, where I could have made more money, but Jamaica is where I can grow professionally,” said Brown, who works renovating Jamaica’s ghettos.
The free movement of professionals has been phased in slowly as part of the integration project that envisions the eventual adoption of a single currency and closer political ties.
The Nassau Guardian
