The Tribune

EVERY day, thousands of people desperate to escape persecution, war, famine, violence or just in search of a better life flee their home countries. They pile into overcrowded makeshift boats or rafts. They cross harsh terrain with whatever possessions they can carry on their back, many with young children at their side, even in below freezing temperatures.

They are the driven, the ones who like a man from Cuba who told The Miami Herald last week “I would prefer to die to reach my dream and help my family.” We will never know how many take that risk and don’t make it. But one thing we do know – immigration has hit countries that are magnets for a better life with a gut-slamming punch and the response is a closed door in the face of hope. Conservatives yell ‘Send them back where they belong.” Liberals yell “Give them a home and a chance.” Until that home is in their back yard.

Immigration strains resources in places that are overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Places like Texas and South Florida and The Bahamas.

Skills

But what if we looked at immigration with different eyes? What if, instead of dreading the droves we looked at who we really are ourselves, where our skills gaps are and what would make our nation richer in talent, ideas, culture and yes, diversity?

What if we stopped looking at the colour of skin and could see in black and white the difference folks from other parts of the world could make? What if, instead of a person’s wealth entitling them to permanent residency, a person’s wealth of knowledge and willingness to share it did so?

What if instead of stopping those 4200 Cubans at sea since last October and turning them around, U.S. authorities had processed and relocated them to areas of large land mass and small populations? Canada has done it with remarkable success and along with Switzerland and Germany is generally regarded as the trendsetter in handling immigration.

And there is a very good reason why Canada leads the world. Canada views the desire to relocate as an opportunity to import talent, skills, capacity. Canada -- yes, the same Canada that successive Bahamas governments turn to for specialists in nearly every field from mass real estate appraisals to finance, from running the country’s largest and busiest airport to dealing with taxation advice – yes, that Canada has an open immigration door with specific requirements for standard or express entry. Have a skill that is badly needed in one area of the country? Come on in, the weather’s cold in winter, but the welcome is warm year-round.

How can we learn and benefit from Canada’s immigration example? We, too, have underpopulated areas and a dearth of skills and resources that could propel us in new directions, slow the brain drain and spread the population throughout the islands.

First, when we speak of foreign and local, we have to stop kidding ourselves saying who is Bahamian and who is not. Unless you can trace your roots to the Lucayans, your ancestors came here from somewhere else, mostly from Africa, but many in the 1790s escaping the Haitian Revolution. According to Bahamian history, it was that influx that gave us names like Deleveaux and Moncur. Given that The Bahamas and Haiti share similar backgrounds of slavery, colonization and victimization, though disparate present-tense stories, it is somewhat surprising that there is so little empathy across cultures. Haiti was, after all, the first free black nation in the Americas and today our cultures are so intertwined that we refer to Haitian-Bahamian as if it were an official category of citizenship.

It’s time we stopped looking at immigration as a problem that needs to be solved instead of an opportunity that needs to be seized.

If we seize the opportunity to import talent and skills not in Nassau, but in the Family Islands, particularly in the southern Bahamas, we could gradually grow the lesser populated islands and raise the standard of living without creating instant culture shock. Note the key elements – gradual and by design, island by island, with a plan for each that creates a distinct identity.

Here are the facts. The land mass of The Bahamas is more than 5,350 square miles yet more than two-thirds of the 400,000 or so people who call The Bahamas home are squished into the 79 square miles of New Providence. And too many of those roughly 300,000 people are cooped up in the inner city where green space is far too rare and crime far too common.

Why do they remain when there is so much land elsewhere? Two underlying reasons. The same thing that brought families to the small island where the capital of Nassau is located keeps them there – economic activity. The second reason is harder to quantify though equally important. Inertia is a powerful stabilizer, lulling those existing in cramped, even undesirable or violent communities, into remaining where they are. They may install stronger locks, pray louder and more often, but absent the powerful lure of the promise of a better life, they are likely to stay right where they are, adding locks and prayers.

So how do we generate economic activity attractive enough to overcome the natural tendency toward doing nothing? And can we do it by the novel concept of inviting and capturing untapped resources of available migrant talent, financial capacity, cultural acumen and labour to build out a series of new economies throughout the family of islands?

Strengths

First, we create a series of identities that best match the strengths of each island. If we set out to design an island that in time would be known as the healing place, and we posted a search for individuals trained in wellness, physical fitness, nutrition, meditation, music, dance, even medical research, we would transform that island inside a decade. Eleuthera, Cat Island or Ragged Island would be perfect.

For movie, commercial and music video production, build a studio complex on Rum Cay where the scenery is dramatic and the natural light is magical. That, in turn, would create a demand for more airlift and accommodations. For research in forestry and farming, import skilled and unskilled labour for Andros and Abaco.

But don’t make immigration automatic. With every immigration application approved comes a set of requirements to be met – the candidate must speak English or learn to speak English within one year or face deportation. He or she must understand the Constitution of The Bahamas in layman’s terms.

Status

They must perform a nominal number of hours of community service in the community in which they seek or are offered residency. They will have status, be able to bank the revenue they generate or wages they earn. Their children may attend the local school.

Past immigration patterns have become unintentional architects of closed communities – the wealthy behind the gates of Lyford Cay, Old Fort Bay, Albany, Ocean Club Estates. The poor in places like The Mud.

The proposed immigration pattern is one that encourages a new kind of community.

While some decry we are selling out, selling the beloved Bahamas to foreigners, I would happily ask them to trace their ancestry and see if they did not find traces of foreign in their DNA. I will take the hit and the verbal abuse on radio, but we need to have a national conversation about the rights and wrongs of treating people as if they were less than human just because they had less of a life than we did.

We can institute basic cultural adoption requirements while celebrating the differences.

If the heart of the home is the kitchen, it’s as simple as trading Grammy’s recipe for chicken souse with another’s for paella. When we all sit down together, it’s a pretty amazing round table.