TCN Separate from Structured Migration Talks – PM

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most. Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Third Country Nationals (TCN) programme is separate from an initiative being explored with the United States (US) for the structured migration of skilled personnel.

Dr. Holness, who was speaking during an interview on Nationwide News on Monday (June 22), said there has been a conflation of the two distinct programmes.

He explained that the arrangements surrounding TCNs, which Jamaica recently signed on to, would allow for persons transferred from the US to transit through the country to their final destination.

The US will fund their stay, and the intake is limited to a maximum of 25 individuals every two weeks.

The Prime Minister said that the talks on a programme for structured migration, led by Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for Efficiency, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Ambassador the Hon. Audrey Marks, is in response to changing US foreign policy and Jamaica approaching full employment.

“The issue of the US changing policy to limit Jamaican migration sparked us to start to think, you know what, we need to have a structured migration programme. The last figure is 3.6 per cent unemployed… 50,000 Jamaicans are unemployed… now we have had to be figuring out what do we do when we get to two per cent unemployment,” he said.

He noted that the concept of structured migration is not new to Jamaica.

“We have the farm workers and we have the hotel workers. People come here almost every year to recruit our teachers and our nurses. [It] creates a real dislocation in our operations,” the Prime Minister said.

He pointed out that the country would benefit from a more coordinated approach to the migration of skilled personnel.

“We could say to the United States or to whichever other country, if you want to recruit our teachers, well come to us, assist us with our training. You could take them for half of the year and they can come back. Or you could take them for a year and they come back,” he said.

He noted that Jamaica had a structured migration programme with Cuba, and is currently pursuing arrangements with Ghana, Nigeria, India, and the Philippines for nurses.

“We are looking to expand that structured migration programme. So, Jamaicans can go, foreigners can come, but we are not at that point yet,” Dr. Holness emphasised.

He said that the Government is not withholding information from citizens regarding the two initiatives. However, negotiations of a bilateral nature do not generally happen in the public space.

Dr. Holness noted that once final documents are completed and signed, there is usually a process by which they are made public.

Prime Minister Holness reiterated that the TCN was initiated by the US.

He noted that while the Government has signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the programme it is not yet implemented.

“It’s not complete because the operationalisation is not complete. Now, as soon as that is done, then we would have called a press conference,” Dr. Holness said.