Episode 8: Caribbean migration in 2020 - intra/CARICOM and extra-regional trends, and the impact of the Venezuelan crisis

The Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host Loksan Harley. Today, I have Jermaine Grant on the show, who joins us from his hometown of Georgetown, Guyana.

Jermaine has been working in the field of migration for the past 10 years. Most recently he was a Technical Officer, working with Guyana's Minister of Citizenship - a role which involved advising his government on migration policy and programmes, especially in relation to support to Venezuelan migrants and refugees.

Previously, Jermaine worked as a Programme Officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where he led the Caribbean interventions of the ACP-EU Migration Action programme, a technical assistance programme that I was fortunate enough to work with on several occasions. Jermaine coordinated the implementation of 13 migration-related technical assistance projects in support of governments and regional organisations across the Caribbean. And Jermaine has also had his own migration experience too, earning a Master's degree at the University of East Anglia in the UK as part of the Chevening Scholarship programme.

Jermaine is a really unique character who both lives and breathes the Caribbean in all the region's richness and diversity, while also bringing a global perspective that's so important to working on migration issues. In our conversation, we touch on many aspects of Caribbean migration, including the main flows and trends, intra-regional migration, extra-regional migration, freedom of movement frameworks within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Eastern Caribbean (OECS), human trafficking, migrant smuggling, the Venezuelan crisis, and the potential of the Caribbean diaspora to contribute to the region's development.

I highly recommend tuning in if only to enjoy that smooth Caribbean accent and to learn a few expressions of Guyanese Creole!

Just a quick apology for the sound quality. We had some technical issues but these seem to have been resolved about 15 minutes in so please do persist.

As always, I'd like to thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the show. And while I've got you, don't forget to subscribe to the mailing list on loksanharley.com/podcast. And share the podcast with your friends directly or via the socials, and review the podcast if your podcasting platform allows. Feel free to drop me a message too if you have any questions.

Now without further ado, here's our conversation.

Useful links

• ACP-EU Migration Action programme: https://acpeumigrationaction.iom.int/
  
• End-of-programme publication of the ACP-EU Migration Action programme (written by yours truly!): https://acpeumigrationaction.iom.int/sites/default/files/acp_eu_migration_action_final_publication_web_small_final.pdf
  
• Chevening Scholarship: https://www.chevening.org/
  
• Connect with Jermaine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jermainegy/