Caribbean nationals are caught in a crux: using different yardsticks to measure immigrants and decide whether they’re welcome, or not.
On the one hand, Haitians who leave their native land to head to the US by boat and end-up stranded in regional territorial waters are loudly welcomed by Civil Society advocates who emotionally appeal to their governments and police not to repatriate them as legally required.
But the same advocates coldly reject any and all immigrants from other developing nations arriving legally from the USA through the International Migration Organization (IMO).
Local reactions are mainly driven by emotion, fear and suspicion, but most commenting online and offline simply refuse to look at the wider picture: that in 2026, migration continues being the global political problem it always was, requiring more-serious consideration and which can’t be solved by emotional rabble-rousing.
Presently, the Caribbean is caught deeper in this global quagmire than ever before.
For example, citizens wishing to legally travel to Europe and the USA are today subjected to new and ever-changing immigration rules and regulations aimed at severely restricting entry.
The USA’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) is enforcing the Trump administration’s policy of ridding undocumented immigrants from a land built by immigrants.
Never mind he’s of immigrant descent and married to an immigrant, US President Donald Trump has consistently made it clear that under his watch, immigrants are simply not welcome in a nation built by migrants.
With mid-term elections around the corner, mega-MAGA advocates are proudly boasting their president has effectively closed USA’s borders to entry by new immigrants.
Undocumented Caribbean nationals are also among those being sent back home after falling into the wide ICE dragnet, while those with temporary visas for ease of travel for business, medical or holiday purposes are now finding they no longer apply.
Europe and the USA are raising their drawbridges to refuse entry to the ‘refugees’ they yesteryear invited to flee their countries with promises of ‘Greener Pastures’ and ‘Lily-white fields’ in ‘Lands of Opportunity’ with ‘Milk and Honey’.
Governments of nations on both sides of The Atlantic face heavy domestic right-wing political opposition to ‘foreigners’ accessing local social programs and gaining employment, which is why Britons voted for Brexit in 2016.
Ten years later, the EU and USA are making entry even-harder for persons from Caribbean nations with Citizenship by Investment Programs (CIPs), whose significantly-cheaper passports-for-sale compete with the million-dollar ‘Golden Visas’ on sale in the restricting nations.
But none-of-that is new.
Despite the global winds of change, the migrant upsurge continues as people from everywhere continue undertaking risky journeys, paying more than life-savings to smuggling rings, to land them on beaches or borders nearest to Europe and the USA.
Britain is paying France to do more to stem the tide of arrivals on its beaches, Germany is closing all entry doors opened by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sweden is looking to end automatic citizenship for children of migrants born on its soil — and Washington is ready to tear the US Constitution to end ‘birth’ rights for children of foreigners born in the USA.
Indeed, the USA and UK are daily reminding migrants from everywhere that, no matter where they come from — or how they arrive — they’re no-longer welcome.
It’s a bitter, hard-to-swallow truth, but that’s how the world is turning today.
The migrant flow continues as never before, reminded by the recent overflow from neighbouring North African nations into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and only last week (September 3) it was reported that 80 migrants from Gambia died after weeks adrift on a boat boarded in Senegal.
But, the more the migrants come, the tougher Europe and the USA get to stem the still-high tide.
Washington is deporting undocumented migrants to third countries by planeloads — cancelling the temporary status of thousands of Venezuelans and at least 350,000 Haitians.
It’s also negotiating related agreements with dozens of countries worldwide to accept tens-of-thousands of asylum-seekers whose applications it’s rejected.
Caribbean nations are still negotiating the contents of draft MOUs to have their concerns addressed and requirements included, before final agreements are signed.
Negotiating separately, some CARICOM member-states have already decided they won’t accept Haitians and others insist their nationals should get first choice.
Saint Lucia has successfully negotiated that no deportees with criminal records will be included among the ten (including children) it will accept every quarter for the next two years — a grand total of 80.
Each migrant accepted by willing nations will also have two choices: returning to their lands of origin voluntarily, or being integrated without being treated as criminals – and respecting national laws.
But those willing to forget that Saint Lucians also live in many other nations illegally are simply turning-up their noses to nationals of other developing countries whose dreams have similarly been frozen and melted by ICE.
Some with no idea how governments work loudly demand their governments publish agreements still being negotiated.
But sober minds are also suggesting more positive approaches, including urging their governments to examine the possibility of reversing the traditional ‘Brain Drain’ by turning the ‘third country’ mechanism into an opportunity for ‘Brain Gain’.
Caribbean governments are therefore being urged to insist Saint Lucia’s quota includes skilled persons the region badly needs, to boost ongoing development.
Most of the questions being asked have been answered by the Prime Ministers and Foreign Affairs Ministers, but the partisan naysayers and preachers of doom refuse to see beyond their eyelids — and continue sowing deliberate doubt.
Meanwhile, Caribbean governments concerned, while continuing to negotiate terms for MOUs that will eventually become agreements worth signing, need to start sharing notes towards taking united approaches to what their citizens see and treat like common problems.
Why?
Because, now as always, united we’ll stand and divided we’ll fall.
So, Caribbean nations can either swim together as one, or sink together, one-and-all!