LOOKING BEYOND REMITTANCES: ASSESSING THE DIASPORA AS AN ENGINE OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN

Abstract

The World Bank estimates that the ratio of those living in the Caribbean to those living abroad as a part of the Caribbean diaspora is now 1:1, as migration trends over the past 30 years have revealed the Caribbean has a rate of emigration when compared to other regions of the world. Many of these Caribbeans are concentrated in major cities and have created diasporic communities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom that are partly characterized by the practice of sending remittances to their homeland. The increase in global migration, coupled with a globalized world that has facilitated international contact and connections, has sparked the interest of many scholars and brought remittances to the forefront of issues agendas economic development in the region. However, in doing so it is also important to recognize what remittance information can tell us and what it cannot, as while remittances are important, they are mostly used for general consumption and do not have potential to spur economic growth on a large scale over a relatively short period of time. In this thesis, I argue that development in the Caribbean should seek to look beyond remittances by mobilizing the diaspora to financially invest in the Caribbean through incentivized Public-Private Partnerships spearheaded by the Government of Jamaica. With the help of fundamental scholarship on the political economy of development from scholars such as Alexander Gerschenkron, Daron Acemoglu, and James A. Robinson, I contend that the Caribbean should strive to create the structural economic conditions that are characteristically inclusive political institutions with enough extractive features to attract foreign capital from the diaspora. Pulling upon examples from the East Asian model of development found in Singapore and South Korea, I make the assertion that a customized path to economic growth and development in the Caribbean will rely on how effectively it is able to utilize and channel the financial, intellectual, and social capital of the diaspora.