Jamaica may be some way off its 2030 vision of becoming the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business — but the percentage of Jamaicans who want to emigrate has declined by more than 10 percentage ponts since 2014 — according to a new global survey published by the Boston Consulting Group.
The ‘Decoding Global Talent’ poll, released on June 25, shows that between 80 and 90 per cent of Jamaicans would emigrate to another country if they got a chance. But, although high by global standards, that number was even higher in 2014 when between 90 to 100 per cent of the respondents said they would like to work abroad.
The latest result shows Jamaicans to be among the most eagre to work abroad, ranking it with other countries such as Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Colombia, Ghana, Iran, Kenya, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Norway and South Korea.
The only other country on that list to see a decline in the number who would want to emigrate was Iran, which recently saw a lifting of sanctions — though that has been reversed to some extent by the US.
A handful of other countries have an even greater desire to work abroad, and that includes Egypt, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Two of the countries in that list saw increases of more than 10 per cent — India and Venezuela.
Jamaica leads the Caribbean for the percentage of people who would like to work abroad. For Barbados and the Dominican Republic (Dom Rep) between 70 and 80 per cent said they would emigrate, while for Panama and oil-rich Trinidad the number was even lower, 60 to 70 per cent.
Like Jamaica, the Dom Rep and Panama also saw a decline in the percentage who wanted to emigrate — down by more than 10 percentage points.
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