Jamaica may be some way off its 2030 vision of becoming the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business — but the percentage of Jamaicans who want to emigrate has declined by more than 10 percentage points since 2014 — according to a new global survey published by the Boston Consulting Group.
The ‘Decoding Global Talent’ poll, released on June 25, shows that between 80 and 90 per cent of Jamaicans would emigrate to another country if they got a chance. But, although high by global standards, that number was even higher in 2014 when between 90 to 100 per cent of the respondents said they would like to work abroad.
The latest result shows Jamaicans to be among the most eagre to work abroad, ranking it with other countries such as Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Colombia, Ghana, Iran, Kenya, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Norway and South Korea.
The only other country on that list to see a decline in the number who would want to emigrate was Iran, which recently saw a lifting of sanctions — though that has been reversed to some extent by the US.
A handful of other countries have an even greater desire to work abroad, and that includes Egypt, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Two of the countries in that list saw increases of more than 10 per cent — India and Venezuela.
Jamaica leads the Caribbean for the percentage of people who would like to work abroad. For Barbados and the Dominican Republic (Dom Rep) between 70 and 80 per cent said they would emigrate, while for Panama and oil-rich Trinidad the number was even lower, 60 to 70 per cent.
Like Jamaica, the Dom Rep and Panama also saw a decline in the percentage who wanted to emigrate — down by more than 10 percentage points.
Jamaicans would most like to move to Canada, the report states, putting it ahead of the US — a turnaround from the 2014 report. It is second on that list for Canada, behind Ghana and ahead of Trinidad.
Even so, Jamaica heads the list of countries whose nationals identify the US as the place they would be most willing to move to. Others in the top 10 are the Dominican Republic (second), Honduras, Nigeria, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Trinidad, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama.
Though they do express interst in moving to the Caribbean, Americans do not have Jamaica on their top 10 list. The US workforce would most like to move to the UK, followed by Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, The Bahamas and Switzerland.
Jamaica also came out tops on the list for countries whose nationals would most like to work in the UK. The top 10 list put Jamaica first, leading a group composed mainly of other English-speaking Commonwealth countries including Barbados (second), Trinidad, Ghana. Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, India, Hong Kong and Greece.
This is very different from the 2014 poll — pre-Brexit, which showed other Europeaen countries to be the most interested in the UK as a place to work and live.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s fondness for the UK as a place to live does not appear to be reciprocated, as it is not on the list of top 10 countries that UK citizens would choose to work in. That list was headed by Australia, follwed by the US, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, New Zealand, the UAE, Ireland and the Netherlands.
It is not only people from developing countries who would work abroad if they were able. A total of 60 to 70 per cent of respondents from Canada and the UK said they too would like to work abroad, while for the US that percentage was between 50 to 60 per cent.
The countries that least wanted to emigrate, with rates of below 50 per cent, included China, Greece, Russia and Israel.
The global average for the percentage of people willing to work abroad stood at 57 per cent for the 2018 survey, compared to 64 per cent for 2014.
Total sample size for the BCC/The Network survey was 366,139 people, and all countries that had more than 100 responses were listed in the results. There were between 1000 and 5000 respondents from Jamaica.
