Tapping Jamaica’s diasporic
youth for development
By Tangerine Clarke
Principal Company Director
and Founder of Youths For
Excellence Ltd., Jamaicanborn,
Jenine Shepherd, says
it is important that the
Jamaican government taps
into its diaspora network to use
young citizens as mentors for
Jamaica’s future generations.
Highlighting the braindrain
crisis that saw skilled
people migrating en-mass to
countries with pull factors and
more opportunities, Shepherd
referred to a study conducted
by the IMF in 2005, that
found between 1995 and 2000
approximately 40 percent of
the Jamaican workforce had
immigrated to the US, many
with tertiary education.
Shepherd, a junior at
Amherst College, Mass., the
top liberal arts college in the
USA, where she is persuing a
double major in Neuroscience
and Economics on a full
ride USA 80K a year, in her
presentation said, “Jamaica
is in the top 20 countries
for the highest immigration
rate of educated people. This
means there is financial loss.
The government is missing
out on valuable revenue
they could have gained from
taxes, or other investments
Caribbean L 28 ife, June 28–July 4, 2019 BQ
made in the country.”
During a Global Jamaica
Diaspora Youth Forum
plenary session at the recently
concluded 8th Biennial
Conference in Kingston,
Jamaica, that brought together
generations of young persons
in the Diaspora to discuss the
way forward for a sustainable
movement, Shepherd,
contended that Jamaica spends
a lot of money subsidizing
tertiary education, and when
doctors, lawyers nurses, and
engineers, for example, leave,
very few return home.
She opined that even
if there is an offset with
remittances to the country,
the IMF proposes “We try
to minimize our losses by
retaining highly skilled labor,
or take a diaspora approach
and tap into the knowledge
and skills of diasporans, to
better the economy, towards
Jamaica’s development.”
Shepherd started the
Youths For Excellence Ltd., a
non-profit organization at 17,
Youths at the Global Diaspora Youth Forum are riveted
to Jenine Shepherd ‘s presentation at the 8th Biennial
Conference in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo by Tangerine Clarke
that tutors inner-city children
in Jamaica, gives them free
health checkups, school
supplies and food courtesy
14 sponsors including Grace
Foods, Seprod, Sangster’s
Book Stores, KFC, and Delgado
Health Services.
The Global Jamaica Youth
Council seeks to engage young
Jamaicans in the diaspora
and empower them to take
the initiative to give back
to Jamaica, and at the same
time, become connected to
the country, said, Shepherd, a
student of economics.
Shepherd addressed the
issue that says it has become
increasingly evident that the
engagement of the second,
third and fourth generation
young persons in the Diaspora
must, be a priority for the
sustainability of the Diaspora
movement. In this regard,
the promotion of business
and entrepreneurship,
mechanisms and knowledge
transfer, cultural connectivity
and identity are key elements
in galvanizing young
Jamaicans between the ages
of 18-35.
Jenine Shepherd during her
talk at the Global Global
Diaspora Youth Forum at
the 8th Biennial Jamaica
Diaspora Conference in
Kingston, Jamaica.
Photo by Tangerine Clarke
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