Venezuelan Refugees: Honoured Guests
“In one city of Port-of-Spain, every culture, every continent of the world is represented. And not just as a sort of detritus of slavery or indentured—It is actively represented by the Hindu and Muslim religions, by Chinese, Indian, Syrian, Lebanese, White, Black.
It’s all there in a very small area of one of the capital places in the Caribbean. People can look at it as bastardisation and say, “Africa has lost its dignity because it’s all mixed up with China, and China has lost its identity.” But what is the identity? The identity is in the very fulfillment of criss-crossing of those various cultures within one very compact city. And therefore, Port-of-Spain is, perhaps, one of the most interesting cities in the world. And someone may say, “Where’s the culture of Port-of-Spain?” The culture of Port-of-Spain—since it was only 200 years out of slavery—lies in the people of Port-of-Spain. And it is inevitable that, if all these various strains of Asian, African, Mediterranean, so on, are circulating within a vertiginous situation, that something is bound to ferment that is very, very fertile.”
—Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott Add a wave of Venezuelan arrivals to this equation.
For the past two weeks if you were anywhere in the vicinity of the Achievers Banquet Hall in San Fernando, Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, or the Caroline Building in Tobago, you would have seen the surreal image of thousands of refugees standing in the lamplight or lying on the pavement with their children, waiting to register for some basic human rights.
Yes, there is poverty and crime here, and yes the oil prices have dipped, and yes the economy is slow, but we’ve done the right thing.
Despite the less than ideal conditions, I am proud of our tiny twin islands for attempting to absorb some of 60,000 of the staggering number of four million Venezuelan refugees.
Approved applicants will be allowed to work for one year, and for that period, to be protected by T&T laws, assured of a minimum wage, and emergency medical services at public health institutions. They do not have a right to access Government funded education or social services. They won’t pay NIS but will contribute PAYE if eligible.
They are among the four million refugees fleeing Venezuela’s socio-economic and political crisis marked by hyperinflation, climbing hunger, disease, crime, and death rates.
It is said to be the worst economic crisis facing a non-warring country since the mid 20th century, and that includes the Great Depression and Russia, and Cuba following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
As with any mass movement of people, there is bound to be confusion, unforeseen upheaval, gaps in the registration process. There are worries (mostly based on our own xenophobia and insecurities) of a spike in crime, of Venezuelans taking our jobs. Trini men going for pretty Venezuelan women.
Most of the worry is based on fear. Consider this: A 2018 mathematical model based on 30 years of data from 15 European countries led by Hippolyte d’Albis, an economist at the Paris School of Economics, suggests that migrants and asylum seekers benefit economies.
The model suggests that within two years of an influx of migrants, unemployment rates drop significantly and economic health increases.
Without minimising the obvious short-term burden to our institutions, absorption into the workforce can only be good. All around us are vignettes of hope.
For a start, people fighting for their very lives will have a powerful work ethic. They will be disciplined, conscientious, open to learning, hard-working, and ambitious. They may clash with our people drunk with decades of oil money and a laid-back service sector that borders on the comatose. They may force us to develop a decent work ethic and a robust service sector.
The (mostly) young refugees are not creating ghettoes but following the work, nationwide, doing jobs many here scoff at. Our ageing farming community, for instance, is finally getting young men to work with them.
Spanish is the new language of global business. Most children in Europe, India, and Africa grow up bilingual.
This is an opportunity to catch up with the world. I was gladdened at The Trinidad Guardian being forward-thinking by running articles in a four-page pullout in the newspaper in Spanish.
Let’s treat our refugees like honoured guests who have had an arduous emotional, physical, and financial journey (three migrant boats capsized in recent weeks). Even those who came by air have slept on pavements and demonstrate their great need. They need a safe space and human rights. By humanising them we humanise ourselves.
Their arrival can only enrich our new world, already sighing with astonishment with the fertile mingling of continents.
Originally Published in The Trinidad Guardian