What's the value of Social Remittance?

Its Caribbean-American Heritage Month- time to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Caribbean immigrants and their descendants living in the United States.

If you like me have family and friends in The Bahamas or the wider Caribbean region, this time of year means the season's best mangoes, guavas and pineapples are readily available in most local grocery stores of the diaspora.

This is also the first month of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season. According to Weather.com, this 2022 season calls for 20 named storms, 10 of which could become hurricanes and 5 of which may reach Category 3 status or stronger, which means every weather report captures your attention.

This time of year is also graduation season which for participants of the brain drain brings news of which youngsters from ‘home’ are traveling for studies or professional pursuit to cities nearby. While I am eternally proud of the motivation that fuels the migration of Bahamian and other Caribbean students and professionals, I often cringe when I get the flurry of WhatsApp calls and Facebook posts, indicating that just as I did years before they are seeking out life elsewhere.

My journey was back in the day of MCI friends and family plans when I and other Caribbean students would join the long bank and money wire transfer lines-sending and receiving the money to and from the region.

Although my experience was decades ago, I was excited to hear the Right Honorable Mia Mottley Prime Minister of the Republic of Barbados and leader of The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) challenge global financers and leaders attending the IX Summit of the Americas to create equity in remittance practices.

While citizens of The Bahamas and throughout the Americas are familiar with financial remittance I wonder whether the time has come to place a mandate that leaders within the region create space for social remittance. Social remittances are the ideas, strategies, tools, designs, apps and perspectives that many of the Caribbean’s brightest and best have trained and practiced throughout the diaspora for generations.

As Prime Minister Mottley reminded the world at the IX Summit of the Americas “ there is much trouble in the world”. As a daughter of the Bahamas, with friends and family all over the Caribbean region, I am confident given the opportunity to exchange ideas, and share tools and approaches, many of the Caribbean’s problems can be resolved with the support of those of us of the diaspora.

Having trained and developed expertise globally, I believe that while there is a need for financial equity to support the region, there is a need for an inclusive perspective- allowing the region's sons and daughters to contribute to our home communities.

As the Bahamas approaches her 50th independence in 2023, I believe the time has come for the leaders of the entire Caribbean region to draw upon the untapped wealth of Social Remittance that is waiting globally to connect, engage and be active participants in what's next for our beloved region.

I and others are just a call or a click away!