Over 7000 Jamaican professionals have emigrated to North America since 2008!
An astounding amount of Jamaicans who worked in professional fields on the island have left to live in North America since 2008.
According to a report by the Observer, the number of professionals opting to leave total over 1,100 each year since 2008 when the when the global financial crisis started.
It’s somewhat reassuring to know that not all professionals in Jamaica have the desire to flee for “greener pastures”.
Here is what Dennis Chung – President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica said in the same report:
“I have a love for Jamaica [and] I think Jamaica is the best place in the world to live” .”Where else in the world you can go and the society is so warm? Where else in the world you can go in your back yard and pick some Julie mangoes and ackee?”
Chung argues that there are only a few things wrong with Jamaica and he would rather stay here and help to remedy them.
“I would rather stay in my country and fix my country rather than stay outside and help to criticise it,” he said. “Everything is not just about having a lot of money, quality of life is a lot more important than that.
“People take simple things for granted, like the fact that you can walk down the road and see Usain Bolt or pay $1,000 and hear all the vintage artiste sing, when people aborad have to pay up to US$100 to see three of them perform.”
In accounting for the experiences of some of his colleagues who left for the North, the PSOJ CEO said, “One or two of them have done well, but for the most part a lot of them are not really living the life that they thought they would be living (in Jamaica).”
Chung said that “people have called me and said that they are trying to come back to Jamaica and get a job because it is so difficult up there”.
He reckons that the transition is far from a ‘bed of roses’ because a lot of people don’t have the support base that they would have back home.
“Had some of them been back in Jamaica where they have a solid base and work smart, not hard, they could have actually made it,” .
He believes that the level of brain drain is largely resultant of the lack of transformative leadership in Jamaica, the issue of crime and the cumbersome and restrictive effect of the Jamaican bureaucracy.
We want to know your views. If given the opportunity – would you hesitate to move to “greener pastures”? Let us know in the comments.
Source: jamaicaobserver.com
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I like the fact that you are patriotic, but an awful lot of your claims are utter bullshit. People know better when they experience it. What people say is one thing, but how people act is more telling and sincere than anything they say. The mere fact that the majority of Jamaicans that leave for birth America or Europe don’t return but for visiting, tells a story that I’m not willing to ignore in favor if what you out they say. Nobody chooses what they consider to be worse, over better. It’s as plain and simple as that
Mr Chung, it is money that is going to give you quality of life. Money makes the mare gallop. You can talk because you can afford an affluent lifestyle in Jamaica. Who feels it knows it and if people cannot make life here it’s only fair for them to try elsewhere. If your own country fails you then the option is to try elsewhere. Jamaica seem to be a hopeless place right now because it’s only the politicians who are able to “live”. Their rum bar allowance is more than my salary and that of others. I am ready to leave to go elsewhere right now. You can stay and rebuild what this government is always tearing down so the blocks will never get higher. A wish u all di best boss but I can’t share your sentiments.
So disturbed, don’t even want to comment. Poor you Mr chung
I agree with Mr Chung…here is why, “Success” and “a better way of life” is not the same with everyone! Not many people leave Jamaica and become what they had fantasize about in accomplishing! So the many people that leave Jamaica, if success to them means owning a home and having a 9 to 5 job, yet you are seen as an alien or being racially targeted by the natives of that country you all migrated to…..then whats the purpose of that said “Success” ? You have all the trappings of a “Good” life yet you cannot venture in certain parts of that country because of your skin color or the fact that you are not born in that country and is still seen as an outsider despite having a green card etc! The problem we have in Jamaica stems from bad leadership………the Gov that the people elect. What Jamaica needs right now is the stabilizing of the dollar and more Job opportunities that will provide people with the ability to live comfortably………also jobs that pays according to their education and skills! Too many times on fb i see Aliens who migrated to the US and other countries who are Jamaicans and the only time dem choose fi big up Jamaica is when Usain Bolt or Tessanne Chin mek us proud! Other than that they are the ones who skin up dem nose and chat bad bout Jamaica! Yes we get it that our crime is high here but its not like people a go round and a kill people randomly! We dont have any type of serial thing going on here or terrorist attacks etc! The Killings are always a result of revenge or gangs fighting each other ova turf!!! Contrary to some a unno paranoid Aliens belief we can still walk the streets and party hardy whenever we want and not fear for our lives! We have an abundance of fruit trees, we can beg we neighbor salt or sugar! we can tun we hand and mek fashion with the little we have and not run go to any shelter for food etc! We can go to our “unpolluted” beaches and have nice time. we can go into any stores and shop so till we drop without having store workers watching us like hawks cause we black and dem fraid we a go thief dem things! We no haffi kotch in a families basement cause rent cheap here if you know whey fi look fi a house! We dont have to worry about some white racist cops beating the crap out of us simply because we are black! We also do not have to worry about sending our young kids to school and worry that some mad person a go shoot up the school killing every one of those kids! So yes, Jamaica have itf faults but if the Gov worked to fix it this country would be like freaking paradise! Some a you all mad cause unno feel displaced even though unno live in a other people country, not knowing which part unno belong and is torn between calling Jamaica yaard or the country whey unno kotch! as for Police brutality………………..dwrcl Foreign have nuff a dat! The amount a video i saw with white cops abusing black people ova deh……………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Jamaican Police Officers em have issues yeah and dem will soon get disciplined soon! So unno can gwaan diss Jamaica cause in the long run this is the place dem a go dip unno claat when unno slip up up deh!
I like the fact that you are patriotic, but an awful lot of your claims are utter bullshit. People know better when they experience it. What people say is one thing, but how people act is more telling and sincere than anything they say. The mere fact that the majority of Jamaicans that leave for birth America or Europe don’t return but for visiting, tells a story that I’m not willing to ignore in favor if what you out they say. Nobody chooses what they consider to be worse, over better. It’s as plain and simple as that
Mr Chung, it is money that is going to give you quality of life. Money makes the mare gallop. You can talk because you can afford an affluent lifestyle in Jamaica. Who feels it knows it and if people cannot make life here it’s only fair for them to try elsewhere. If your own country fails you then the option is to try elsewhere. Jamaica seem to be a hopeless place right now because it’s only the politicians who are able to “live”. Their rum bar allowance is more than my salary and that of others. I am ready to leave to go elsewhere right now. You can stay and rebuild what this government is always tearing down so the blocks will never get higher. A wish u all di best boss but I can’t share your sentiments.
So disturbed, don’t even want to comment. Poor you Mr chung
I agree with Mr Chung…here is why, “Success” and “a better way of life” is not the same with everyone! Not many people leave Jamaica and become what they had fantasize about in accomplishing! So the many people that leave Jamaica, if success to them means owning a home and having a 9 to 5 job, yet you are seen as an alien or being racially targeted by the natives of that country you all migrated to…..then whats the purpose of that said “Success” ? You have all the trappings of a “Good” life yet you cannot venture in certain parts of that country because of your skin color or the fact that you are not born in that country and is still seen as an outsider despite having a green card etc! The problem we have in Jamaica stems from bad leadership………the Gov that the people elect. What Jamaica needs right now is the stabilizing of the dollar and more Job opportunities that will provide people with the ability to live comfortably………also jobs that pays according to their education and skills! Too many times on fb i see Aliens who migrated to the US and other countries who are Jamaicans and the only time dem choose fi big up Jamaica is when Usain Bolt or Tessanne Chin mek us proud! Other than that they are the ones who skin up dem nose and chat bad bout Jamaica! Yes we get it that our crime is high here but its not like people a go round and a kill people randomly! We dont have any type of serial thing going on here or terrorist attacks etc! The Killings are always a result of revenge or gangs fighting each other ova turf!!! Contrary to some a unno paranoid Aliens belief we can still walk the streets and party hardy whenever we want and not fear for our lives! We have an abundance of fruit trees, we can beg we neighbor salt or sugar! we can tun we hand and mek fashion with the little we have and not run go to any shelter for food etc! We can go to our “unpolluted” beaches and have nice time. we can go into any stores and shop so till we drop without having store workers watching us like hawks cause we black and dem fraid we a go thief dem things! We no haffi kotch in a families basement cause rent cheap here if you know whey fi look fi a house! We dont have to worry about some white racist cops beating the crap out of us simply because we are black! We also do not have to worry about sending our young kids to school and worry that some mad person a go shoot up the school killing every one of those kids! So yes, Jamaica have itf faults but if the Gov worked to fix it this country would be like freaking paradise! Some a you all mad cause unno feel displaced even though unno live in a other people country, not knowing which part unno belong and is torn between calling Jamaica yaard or the country whey unno kotch! as for Police brutality………………..dwrcl Foreign have nuff a dat! The amount a video i saw with white cops abusing black people ova deh……………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Jamaican Police Officers em have issues yeah and dem will soon get disciplined soon! So unno can gwaan diss Jamaica cause in the long run this is the place dem a go dip unno claat when unno slip up up deh!