Five Issues to Remember from 2020

According to the Pew Research Center (April 2020), 91% of the world's population, 7.1 billion people, lives in countries that restrict the arrival of people from other countries who are neither citizens nor residents, such as tourists, traders, and new immigrants. Around 3 billion people, or 39%, live in countries whose borders are completely closed to non-citizens or non-residents, according to UN data. These restrictions vary among the world's most populous countries, but they are happening at a time when airlines have cut routes and tourism is at rock bottom. That latter reality is hitting the insular Caribbean, the most tourism-dependent region in the world. Some good practices among neighboring countries have made it more flexible for migrants to return to their countries of origin. The Dominican Republic facilitated the spontaneous return of 200,000 Haitian workers. Other migrant workers have gone through unfortunate experiences, being trapped in destination countries and unable to get home for Christmas. This is the case of temporary agricultural workers from Trinidad and Tobago stranded in Canada because they cannot find flights back to the Caribbean.

Extreme weather events

In an extraordinary Atlantic hurricane season, 30 named storms formed, including 13 hurricanes, among them six major hurricanes. Taken together, this doubled the activity of an average season. Two catastrophic hurricanes hit Central America in November: Hurricanes Iota and Eta, the deadliest hurricane event worldwide in 2020, with at least 274 people reported dead or missing. In addition to announcing humanitarian assistance, the Trump administration has limitedly extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to certain Central American countries due to the effects of these cumulative disasters. Haitian nationals are also included among the countries whose situation does not favor the return of their nationals. Created 30 years ago, TPS shows a certain degree of empathy toward people affected by extreme events associated with climate change. The issue has been placed on the agenda of the new Biden administration with a view to making its proper use more flexible. It is worth noting that a recent study examining TPS designations and redesignations in the past found that TPS does not contribute to an increase in arrivals to the United States in subsequent years (Schoenholtz 2019).

Remittances that do not waver

Predictions about remittance flows suggested that immigrants would stop sending money home when the coronavirus cost them their jobs. In April, the World Bank forecast that remittances sent by immigrants to Latin America and the Caribbean would decline by nearly 20 percent this year. After falling sharply in March and April in Latin America, around three-quarters of which are sent by immigrants working in the United States, remittances recovered, and even more money was transferred to some of those countries in the first half of 2020. It surpassed the amount sent in the same period of 2019. The resilience of immigrants, their ability to endure, and their solidarity with the relatives they left behind stand out. In the insular Caribbean, the country that sent the largest amount in remittances to other CARICOM members is The Bahamas, followed by Antigua and Barbuda. The principal recipient countries of remittances from other Caribbean countries are Haiti and Jamaica, respectively. More than half of all intra-regional remittances come from The Bahamas, a country that, interestingly, does not participate in any of the free-movement regimes among the islands.

Dangers on the high seas

In 2020, the exodus of Venezuelans persisted despite a temporary return by part of the population abroad due to the pandemic. Regardless of this moderate return trend, UN figures estimated more than 5 million migrants and refugees in this continuing mobility of emigration over the last five years. The conditions of their return to their country were cumbersome. At the same time, departures continued in high-risk situations, reflecting the limited channels available for legal emigration. At the end of 2020, a shipwreck between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago claimed the lives of at least 41 people, including women and children. It was a boat fit for eight people that left Guiria without life jackets or navigation equipment. This forced migration will surely remain a concern in 2021 as solutions to the prolonged crisis in Venezuela remain distant.

Vaccines on the horizon

Colombian President Duque is the only head of state in Latin America and the Caribbean who has proposed excluding part of the migrant population from the national vaccination plan. The place migrants in general, and Venezuelans in particular, will have has not been addressed in the vaccination debate in the region. Even if access to the vaccine is guaranteed for migrants regardless of status, it is still unclear whether they are considered a risk population, nor what priority they will have compared to national citizens. Another challenge is how to reach migrants who are not regularized. Communication campaigns to attract migrants to vaccination centers will be key.