By George Alleyne
Thousands of New Yorkers
who are third generation
descendants of Barbadians are
likely to get in the new year what
they have been dreaming of for
a long time and never thought
would become reality — citizenship
of Barbados.
This is because the laws of
Barbados which have allowed
persons born on the island then
took up residence abroad to pass
on the island’s nationality only
to their children and never their
grandchildren, will be changed
in 2020 enabling on-island born
Bajans to bestow that status on
their children’s children.
Barbados Minister of Home
Affairs, Edmund Hinkson, has
announced that this coming
change in the law is part of a sheaf
of legal immigration changes he
will take to parliament early next
year with the aim of boosting the
island’s receding population.
“We will expand citizenship
rights to grandparents and
great-grandparents, grandchildren
and great grandchildren.
If you are a grandchild or a great
grandchild of a Barbadian citizen,
you will thereafter be entitled
to Barbadian citizenship,” he
said recently.
Reacting happily to this
announcement, Barbados Consul
General in New York, Mackie
Holder told Caribbean Life,
that citizenship by descent for
Barbadians living abroad, “is
one of those topics that always
brings instantaneous applause
whenever and wherever it is
spoken about. Prime Minister
Mia Mottley spoke about it at
the NY Town Hall meeting in
September and experienced the
response.”
“It is a good thing for Barbados
and for Barbadians in the
Diaspora and I am sure most
will take advantage of the opportunity.”
He said the number of Barbadian
descendants in his jurisdiction
and other popular areas for
Bajan settlement in the US who
stand to benefit could number
in the thousands.
Caribbean L 18 ife, JANUARY 10-16, 2020
“We do not know who has
grandchildren and the number
of grandchildren they have.
But there are some 50,000 plus
Barbadians in Brooklyn alone.
I would think that between NY,
Philadelphia, Boston, New Jersey
and Connecticut there are
over 100,000 definitely in the
North-East corridor.”
This joy for Bajan New Yorkers
and others across the United
States exposes the ironic circumstances
of the island in
which many persons born abroad
with Bajan blood are wishing to
migrate and offer services to the
land of their grandparents’ birth
but cannot do so but the island
continues to suffer a need for
population growth.
Hinkson explained, “in the
last five years between 2014 and
2018 our rate of natural increase
of Barbadians has hovered
between 1.2 and -0.4, with
our rate of population growth
between those years being in the
negative, -0.2 percent in 2014
and 2015, and -0.4 percent in
2016, 2017 and 2018.”
Barbados Minister of Home Affairs, Edmund Hinkson.
Photo by George Alleyne
Government has determined
that its current population and
the negative growth numbers
make for an inadequate workforce
base for the island’s future
development needs.
Noting that the substantial
Bajan workforce in the US has
contributed to that country’s
development, Hinkson said, “we
can’t be happy building up the
United States of America which
is a country of immigrants.”
“It is the leading country economically
because of the immigrants.
“We Barbadians are among
the people that helped build it
up. … we also have to adopt that
philosophy to a greater extent.”
Barbados’ immigration
joy for New Yorkers