OK well hello everybody thank you again for
coming out today for our first WGD discussion series presentation for this
academic year for this semester and again I'm Daniel Sumner,
I'm the assistant director for women and gender in international
development at the center for international research and development.
You're all used to seeing Dr. Maria Elisa Christie up here
but she's traveling in Vietnam right now for one of our projects.
And again I would always like to thank our continued support from the office of
international affairs and from CIRED itself for their continued
support for the discussion series and again as always as we in our
acknowledging here that the Tutelo Monacan people who are the
traditional custodians of the land on which we work live and
recognize their continuing connections to the land water and air that Virginia Tech
consumes we pay respect to the
Tutelo Monacan nations and to their elders past present and emerging and so again
we just think you have time to fill out the sign-up
as it comes around or before you leave at the end of the presentation just
helps us track where all everything you are coming from
and the types of events that we're going to continue to host
and again any other further updates on our future discussion series speakers
will be on the website just check it out CIRED webpage and as always the
presentation will last about approximately
40 minutes followed by like a 10-minute period of discussion
and I know you all might be noticing we will have some coffee bagels so grab one
on the way out because you're going out or do you want to snack and talk
in here in the room after the presentation.
So but again it is my esteemed privilege to welcome our speaker today Dr. Andrea Baldwin.
Dr. Baldwin is the assistant professor in the department of
sociology here at Virginia Tech. She's also an attorney at law and holds
a masters of science in international trade policy and a PhD in gender and
development studies. Dr. Baldwin has several publications
including her most recent published last November titled
Moving forward and looking back transnational feminist spaces margins
methods and modalities, and Outside in voices from the
margins of academia. Dr. Baldwin was born and raised on the
small Caribbean island state of Barbados and considers herself an all-around
Caribbean woman who loves everything coconut and sopa so please
join me in welcoming Dr. Baldwin here.
[Applause]
Good afternoon everyone thank you all for coming out today.
I see some colleagues and some friendly faces
so I want to thank you all. I also want to thank Maria Elisa
from the center for international research education and development for
inviting me to deliver this talk today. I also want to thank thank my husband
who has heard this talk twice in the last two weeks and who's
sitting here again to hear it for a third time
and so um uh you know i think that means one of three
things it the top he's either very supportive what you're going to hear is
probably pretty good i don't know or a little bit of both so so i want to
thank everyone for being here uh so before i launch into the talk i
want to take a few minutes to explain the way in which i'm using
the term Caribbean and by Caribbean I'm referring specifically to the
Anglophone or English-speaking Caribbean so I forgot to put my timer on um
anglophone or english-speaking caribbean which comprises as you can see here on
there's a there's a little car curve of smaller tiny islands and these are
islands that span the geography of the greater less and greater and lesser Antilles
as well as two islands two countries on
the mainland of South America Guyana in your fork and one four corner and belize
in the other four corner um and so they include the now independent island
nations of antigua and barbuda barbuda the bahamas barbados dominica
grenada jamaica saint kitts and nevis st lucia
saint vincent and the grenadines and the republic of trinidad and tobago
and as i said guyana and belize as well as british overseas territories
of anguilla the british virgin islands the cayman
islands montserrat turksenki and the turks and caicos
island and while you see that some of these are islands and some of the
two of them are in the mainland of south america they
all of them share a history in common um and although there might be some islands
and some um on the mainland of south america
these countries all share a similar and yet distinct history
having all been colonized by the british at one time or the other
the colonization resulted in the extinction of the indigenous peoples
and only a few of their descendants can be found there today
the indigenous peoples have been replaced by persons of british
african jewish indian syrian portuguese and chinese descent the
african population makes up the majority of inhabitants being descendants of
people brought to the caribbean as enslaved people to
work the plantations owned by the white british the east indians
and later chinese migrated to the region as an alternative
source of labor after slavery was abolished and came to
inhabit in large parts the territories of
trinidad and guyana and to a letter to a lesser extent
jamaica and saint vincent so based on this snapshot of the
geography and history of the region it is easy to envision that envisaged
that the attempt to theorize the caribbean and more
specifically the anglophone caribbean can be a challenging endeavor
it would be inaccurate to perceive the region and its peoples as having
an identifiable single homogeneous caribbean identity
rather there are shared regional customs practices and beliefs
characterized by analogous differences and i want to be clear
that this particular research on reparations is based
on this caveat in the contemporary caribbean period repertory
justice remains a relevant as well as
controversial topic as these countries grapple with and con
with continued development challenges a majority
a major cause of controversy in the region around reparations
involves the complexity and resulting misunderstanding
of what it entails the international center for trans national for trans
transitional justice defines reparations as serving to acknowledge the legal
obligation of a state individual or group to repair the
consequences of violations either because they have directly
committed or failed to prevent them this acknowledgment according to andrew
valls involves more than purely financial compensation
and in fact covers many different types of material reparations including
restoring civil rights and political rights erasing unfair
criminal conviction physical rehabilitation and granting
access to land health care or education it must be
noted that many wrongs for which reparations
may be due are of reason recent vintage and as such
according to the ictj not only direct victims but also their
family members and children should be including included in the
reparative justice calculations as a means of overcoming enduring
consequences and generational legacies of violations
committed in fact it would be a mistake to focus
reparations on violations committed during slavery alone without
acknowledging the systems of oppression that were set in motion by by but that
exists several generations after slavery ended and under which people suffer in
doing this we avoid eliding the whole history of discrimination and oppression
that follow the end of slavery and i will come back to this point later
because this is the crux of today's talk and my research in general in 2013
the caricom reparations commission or crc and for those of you not familiar
with caracom i wanted to put this up here uh because
the easiest way to explain caracom is to tell you that it is supposed to function
like the european union um where members of countries have
a single currency there's visa free travel for citizens of
those member countries and they're supposed to be the general
trade and other cooperation mechanisms so you can see here that you that all of
these passports these are passports have the countries on them so you have
barbados you have saint kitts and nevis but they all have these two seas at the
top which represents that these these the people holding these passports
are from caracom which and they can travel freely
without visas um to each country um
so the crc which was established in 2013 with a mandate to
prepare the case for repertory justice for the region's indigenous and african
descendant communities who have been victims of
crimes against humanity in the forms of genocide
slavery slave trading and racial apartheid
this body has pushed for repertory justice
and this was endorsed by the caricom heads of government in 2014
through a 10-point plan which has formed the basis of discussions on reparations
in the region today this 10-point plan was outlined by the
crc emphasizes the impacts of the legacies
of colonialism how these impacts need to be considered
as part of the reparations agenda and sets the current uh estimates
for reparations to the region at 76 billion pounds
according to hillary beckles the plan calls first for
a formal apology and i'll show you the plan real quick the plan first calls
for a formal apology um from the governments of europe and
for a repertory justice for caribbean societies around issues of healthcare
education cultural development food security and
debt cancellation to ease the burdens of caribbean economies
and to transform their communities and facilitate sustainable development
beckles goes on to state that reparations is not an issue of repaying
the enormous debts owed to descendants of enslaved africans but
is part and parcel of the global movement for racial
justice for social justice and for economic justice
no and this is kind of goes into what i'm proposing in
in this talk while acknowledging this plan as a step in the right direction
i'm however concerned with the ways in which the current reparations in the
region does not include gender as a cross-cutting issue
i believe that the importance of not considering reparations through a purely
racial lens but also through a gender lens cannot be
overstated some reparations theorists like balfour
for example have called for gender sensitive conversations
surrounding reparations specifically specifically for black americans
but this case can also be made for black women in the caribbean who have suffered
consequences of racial and gender oppression
as a consequence of slavery and colonialism
martha biandi asked the question whether the reparations policy will address the
systemic violence and oppression enslaved women face and the legacies
that flow they're from this is a very important question
because as many caribbean historians including beckles have pointed out
due to conditions under slavery caribbean women and men took on very
different roles in the family and in society
for example because enslaved people were not allowed to legally marry and the
slave code made it illegal made it legal for
enslaved partners to be violently separated through sale
or otherwise removed at any time legitimacy was given to the
centrality of the mother's role in the family it meant
that under this system women assumed the responsibility of
providing materially but also for caring for their dependents
including children the elderly and the disabled and they
had to be creative in developing ways to do so often to the
detriment of their own well-being the patterns of caring
for themselves and their families that emerged because of these conditions
remains a central feature of our caribbean societies today and of
what women in the caribbean do today understanding then this then beyond
these questions mentioned earlier is grounded in a larger ultimate and
ultimately more complex set of questions concerning the
appropriateness of introducing gender and gender oppression as central
categories of of analysis in the discourse on
reparations what would our vision of the harm
suffered as a result of these racist institutions look like
if attention to the relationship between gender oppression and racial oppression
was more central to the theoretical framework underlying
discussions on reparations how would we come
to conceive the measures required by a substantive repertory
reparative project if attention to gender
were to become a fundamental part of our way of thinking about these issues
so returning to the earlier point made by vols
uh that reparation should also include not only violations committed
during slavery alone but systems of oppression that were set in motion
by and exist several generations after slavery ended
i will use remain of this talk to demonstrate how the legacy of forceful
transportation of african people to the caribbean has produced
patterns of out-migration particularly of caribbean women
in the post-enslavement and post-colonial period
that therefore needs to be including in the calculations for reparations
so according to verdi vareen shepard the his the historical injustices of
slavery and colonialism have undeniably contributed to poverty
under development marginalization social exclusion
economic disparities instability and insecurity
that affected developing countries caribbean governments have inherited
from slavery and colonialism a massive burden
of community poverty and institutional unpreparedness
for development best and levitt in discussing the impact and
significance of the plantation legacy for the caribbean evolving for the
caribbean's evolving landscape contended that the caribbean remains a
plantation society today one that is deeply enmeshed in colonial
structures in the caribbean slavery with its
accompanying plantation system has characterized as was characterized
by a monocrop economic structure supported by
preferential terrorists in europe once that system was terminated
caribbean economies were crippled and found it hard to survive within the
global capitalist system as they failed to diversify and
continue to rely mainly on a single foreign exchange
earner either in agriculture international finance or tourism sectors
today while the actual slave plantation has
been replaced by multinational corporations
the formula remains the same foreign-owned corporations
operating within tax-free zones supported by unskilled or semi-skilled
labor with profits being repatriated abroad
now during slavery migration flows were characterized by sustained forced
movements this was followed by indentured labor
movements during the period 1838-1917 these inward flows during slavery and
colonialism formed the basis of the contemporary
caribbean migration caribbean peoples thus always have been
a migratory people with ties to africa india asia and
europe all centering on and on the workings of
the plantation after slavery persons move to laboring
to larger neighboring islands to central america
and eventually the colonial mother country and mother country and
quotes um in search of employment and betterment for themselves
and their families these migratory flows are in large part in response to labor
demands within the global labor market or um sorry within
the global labor market overpopulation inequalities in
instability and institutional unpreparedness but there's no denying
the significance of slavery and colonialism and contouring
the character and directions of the migration
outflows for instance during the immediate
poor slavery period when sugar faced crisis and planters were filing for
bankruptcy and abandoning estates many west indians began migrating to escape
memories of the atrocities of the plantation system
grave distress and to seek employment elsewhere
the largest wave of immigrants during this period
were mostly caribbean males who went to help build the panama canal
from 1880 to 1914. this was followed by a period of crisis
between 1920 to 1940 and as a result very little migration
took place during that time the completion of the canal in 1914 the
crash in sugar prices in 1921 the enactment of
restrictive and racially discriminatory immigration
legislation and finally the great depression
brought about a period of considerable mobility
to the about that period of considerable mobility to an
end so then we go to uh post-world war ii um and onward where immigration
resumed with colonial subjects going to their respective mother
countries in large numbers and they were going to find employment
mostly in industry transport and hospitality services
these migrants are referred to as the wind rush generation because they went
over to um to england on the windrush ship
so they learned they're they're called the rin rush generation
migrants from the 1960s onward were characterized by a
predominance of women caribbean women were migrating independent of men
and even surpassed their male counterparts
in some cases in many cases women went first
and sent for their family so that while it might have been the case that men
dominated migration flows in the initial stages of immigration from the caribbean
by the 1960s and onward female migration was similar to our outpaced that of men
why was this happening for two main reasons
first prior to world war ii sexual and racial discrimination in the
professional workforce limited women's employment possibilities
in the early 20th century working-class women were engaged in labor-intensive
work while middle-class women were seen as
suitable only for certain types of professions such as teaching and nursing
and face certain unemployment or temporary on
temporary employment if they got married or became pregnant
promotions were exceptional and women's wages were
always less than those of men since women
were primarily seen as a homemaker but as i said earlier that was not true
women were tasked with also being the persons
who supported their households financially and then we had the second
world war which was the second reason um and this
was a turning point in almost all caribbean societies as caribbean
governments implemented economic policies in the 1960s
which were supposed to sustain industrial development and economic
growth and provide employment the policies however consistently failed
to meet their objectives for the most part these puerto rican
model policies created industries that were relatively
capital intensive and depended on the import of raw
materials and machinery the models also developed few linkages
with other sectors of the economy the local economy which helped to
reinforce foreign control over economic activity over local
economic activity by the 1970s the economies of the
caribbean region could hardly be sustained
this resulted in widespread economic despair
in the region and by 1985 the world bank had loaned the region
over us 100 million dollars that's u.s
um while because there's an exchange rate so 100 million in
in us is 200 million barbados dollars while the imf had standby and extended
fund arrangements as a condition of these loans the imf
and world bank at the end of the 20th century
and the beginning of the 21st century introduced
structural adjustment policies what we call in the region
saps these policies were based on neoliberal economics and saw the
expansion of private sector influence over policy and development
and were overwhelmingly concerned with the restoring
uh restoring the macroeconomic stability with a
with a view of promoting economic activity
the catch though is that while sapps uh expected to have to introduce these
strong economic growth they didn't through and
this was through a trickle-down economics that once the rich got richer
then it would trickle down to the poor people
they did not pay attention to the social and human
dimensions of adjustment this period saw not only a reordering of production
toward exports for the world market and the lifting of import controls but a
reduction of spending on social welfare programs
as well as the end of consumption subsidies relaxed
labor standards for employee employees and high prices
for basic consumption goods which led to a severe decline in
real wages and there's a really good documentary on this called life and debt
um and it and it features jamaica and how saps basically destroy the jamaican
economy um so during this period my own mother
uh ended up migrating to the u.s to work and she came here to clean hotel rooms
when i was a child because according to her she needed to make sure
that we could eat and that was a sacrifice she needed to make
and this created this this particular thing created a
entire generation of students whose whose mother specifically went abroad
so that they could support um their children i'm not sure
how if any of you know what these are um but these are barrels and these barrels
um were what migrant parents sent back to their children in
the caribbean to support them and they usually left
their children with other women from their family or friends and so
their the migrant women would send these barrels back for children
and this this actually spawned a name for children whose parents were overseas
or and their mothers sent barrels home they
were called barrel children and so i was a barrel child
um the migration trend continued on early in the new millennium
when the region faced new manifestations of the effects of globalization
the more significant was the destruction of the main agribusiness
production system and the removal of protective mechanisms
such as the european union quotas for preferential markets and the attempt to
alleviate these effects with the signing of the
economic partnership agreement in 2008 and in 2008 i was actually working for
the european union and so i was i saw this economic
partnership agreement the negotiation of this agreement
in addition most caribbean countries while still promoting and investing
in the tourism sector um so this is the present while most
caribbean countries were still investing and promoting in the tourism sector
they also ventured in to international financial services
so this is uh some ads marketing the caribbean as this great destination for
tourism and then you see them enter into
international financial services so that they can get much needed for an
exchange and this would also be a source of
employment for many skilled and education
educated people so investments in financial services
have resulted in the region becoming relatively competitive in international
business however this came under scrutiny uh
under the scrutiny of the international community with some states being
blacklisted and relisted and as you can see here many caribbean countries are
listed under the the dirty 30. um which is
which is ridiculous because the us is the biggest money launderer in the world
um global censure in addition to the negative effects of the 2017 global
economic crisis made deep impacts people who graduated
with university degrees and skill service skill certificates
entered the workforce which was steadily shrinking as both
private and public sector businesses made employment and financial cuts to
remain competitive others were forced to close their doors
this was compounded by the volatility of oil
gas and commodity prices and the decreasing ability
of the state to subsidize rising costs as its coffers
continue to dwindle and debts continue to rise additionally as states try to
implement strategies to raise internal revenue caribbean
people were further burdened with new and rising taxes in addition to
molten personal debt it is these conditions
which have their foundations in the plantation economy
built and this is my argument built in a system of slavery and
buttressed by colonialism that compel caribbean women to migrate
in search of opportunities for themselves
and the people that they care for and about
if we understand the underdevelopment of the caribbean and the decades of forced
migration because this is forced migration in my mind
and the decades of forced migration resulting from the disadvantages
of these underdevelop of this underdevelopment and as a result of
slavery then we must acknowledge caribbean
women's migration as a necessary component of the reparations
project to reclaim rebuild and restore human
dignity and also to help their households and
communities uh stabilize and for economic security
and i think that these women sacrifices need to be part of that calculation
so in 2016 i published an article in the journal for international women's
studies along with my colleague from the university of
mona uh university of the west indies mona jamaica um
on referee on on looking at caribbean women's migration
and so natasha and i used anna johnny's daughter's theory of political sexuality
and caribbean feminist urine by using biotoastery of gender
caribbean gender systems to develop our to develop our theory of love power
migration to try to better understand caribbean
women's migration because we were saying we weren't getting the pushball thing
there was more we thought that encompassed caribbean women's migration
than just push-pull it was more complex than that um
in that article we argue that within their relationships caribbean women who
are socialized in colonial and post-colonial society to care for their
families and loved ones migrate to take advantage of several
opportunities including work and career professional advancement education
or family reunification as a means of providing
much care and love for their families love power migration can also be
embarked upon as a mother as a method of forging
new relationships and networks the foundation for building and rebuilding
in diaspora which both impacts and is impacted by
the reconstruction of relationships and the creation of new networks
within a vibrant transnational space love
we argue incubated in the social and cultural context of the caribbean gender
relations which are shaped by colonialism must be
considered as one of the underlying motivations for migration of caribbean
women not only do women play a significant role in the past and present
migration flows in terms of numbers but they also play a significant role in
transnational flows the resettlement of their spouses
children and other relatives their roles these roles have been
enhanced by the fact that women also play
a major role in the formation and maintenance of social networks
which bind communities together and facilitate the entry adjustment and
adaptation of later migrants christine barrow notes that several
investigation of family in the caribbean have
identified female-dominated kinship networks often
extending abroad to incorporate migrant ties these networks are created and
maintained as women by women as adaptive strategies for
survival in circumstances of property and deprivation
further these networks come to function as migration
as causes of migration in themselves because they lower the cost
and risk of migration and increase its expected returns
what i'm arguing here is that gender is a social construct everybody knows this
and the core organizing principle that underlies but it's also the core
organizing principle that underlies migration as a strategy
to escape hardship that can be traced back to slavery and colonialism
therefore as a complex phenomenon migration must be considered for
for both uh the positive and negative consequences that continue
to be continue to impact immigration uh migrants their communities and
countries of origin when we think about reparations
therefore we need to we need to have a conversation
about what have caribbean women suffered or benefited
how have their families communities country suffered or benefited
how can the consideration of this suffering are these benefits
impact what reparations are requested and how reparations are calculated
for example most caribbean women sorry women who migrate
do so of their own effort and volition and with no assistance or extension of
legal rights to them through colonizing countries in fact
many caribbean women have migrated in violation
of the laws of some of these countries and have lived with the added pressure
of being labeled illegal and the ramifications of such an
unwelcoming destination unstable work low wages unregulated
unemployed employment vilification imprisonment violence and
abuse as well as other forms of discrimination
and treatment
as well as other forms of discrimination and treatment
um and alienation in destination countries
migration also results in much loss for households committees and societies in
the form of family breakup negative impacts on children left behind
and the women who leave them as well as brain drain when skilled and
professional persons leave yet they have
yet as they have endured um discrimination in
these foreign lands our caribbean households and communities have
benefited from the remittances in the form of money and goods as well
as social and cultural capital that flow back from and benefit
caribbean societies for example natasha mortley has shown
how migration of caribbean nurses resulting
in nurse shortages and deteriorating health care in the short
term has also resulted in medium and
long-term gains for the health system through knowledge
transfer and skill transfer as well as economic
and social benefits for the health system
these areas of hardships and benefits that i just mentioned can be linked to
what i showed you earlier which is the reparations calculations that ten point
plan um including education health culture
and technology transfer so what might we consider
uh so what might con considering gender and the migration of caribbean women
look like as part of a reparations agenda
um in and this is um some of the things i believe it can look
like and there are probably much more um so it can look like bilateral or
bilateral agreements that fund programs in the area of sustainable development
based on the networks caribbean women have already constructed
and reconstruct and maintain in diasporic communities
for example getting former colonizers to strengthen
the people-to-people partnerships in health and education facilities
that have been built by caribbean migrant women
there are caribbean overseas based nationals school
alumni and professionals who contribute time
technical assistance and equipment to support population and development
services in their home countries teams of jamaican physicians for example
and nurses in the diaspora periodically visit to perform operations
or donate much needed equipment and supplies
to support the health system back home similarly
alumni of of teachers colleges provide scholarships for students
caribbean tourism and specifically diaspora tourism
revenues have also grown throughout these and other networks of nationals
in the diaspora in my opinion reparations look like assistance to
maintaining and helping grow these networks
reparations also looks like the development of programs for the social
and economic development of diasporic women within the framework
of a new partnership based in the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect
for example caribbean nurses who have migrated have
not only improved themselves through professional development and enhancing
economic security but they are part of nursing
associations lobby groups and other community groups contributing to
the better health care within the diaspora here and
other places some are leaders within lobby groups associations and are part
of political mobilization and activism within their
adopted communities acknowledging this work has the
potential to form uh to be a form of repertory justice for
the caribbean societies as professional women within the diaspora
have accessed the economic resources and have social and political clout which
makes them ideally positioned to facilitate
partnership among ngos and policy makers at home and abroad
thus the socio-economic cultural and political contributions of caribbean
women to diaspora communities in colonizing spaces
should be factored into the discourse on repertory justice and sustainable
development i also cannot emphasize enough the need
for reparations that address psychological harms
in doing this research i have spoken to women who left their minor children
and these minor children are now grown women including my own mother
who when they talk about leaving their children decades ago
are still moved to tears because they are riddled still riddled with the guilt
and unresolved feelings of abandonment and loss reparations look
like helping with that according to benson
if as reparations advocates quite reasonably
argue the nature of reparation policies must reflect the nature of the injuries
suffered then attention to the relationship
between race and gender will be an important factor in
ascertaining that certain harms are not excluded from
the list of reckonings as cop chortan writes historical
injustices can have spillover on just effects in an
indirect way and so we need to think outside the box
when it comes to how we address reparations as we
think about the future of the caribbean region
there's also a larger developmental advantage to considering
caribbean women's migration caribbean women have
caribbean governments have signed on to the sustainable development goals
several of which are directly linked to migration for instance goal five
the empowerment of women and girls go eight growth and decent work growth
goal 10 reducing inequalities and goals 17 global partnerships
and sustainable development all can relate to migration
rather than a narrow lens on brain drain and aiming to prevent migration policy
migration policy planners need to better document
and manage migration flows especially that of female
migrants who have the potential to help achieve those development targets so in
conclusion i would like to say that paying
attention to migration uh reforms from former colonizers in order
to take advantage of the full extent of what our diaspora communities
have and want to offer will simultaneously work
well since simultaneously working on systems to streamline how our countries
can take advantage of these opportunities is essential to a
reparative justice demand that ensures development
assistance improved access to global markets and so on
as well as pushing policy makers to invest in education
employment and cultural programs in partnership with diasporic communities
policy makers and governments should see the need to develop
targeted programs in these areas in order to empower and value groups
such as young women and girls further policy needs to focus on how to include
the cost of reintegration programs from for return returning migrants so
that they could transfer any economic and social benefits accrued abroad
access employment opportunities when they finally get home
access grants and loans and reintegrate successfully into their home communities
i posit that as a region the caribbean should engage in a repertory
uh a pro sorry participatory approach wherever possible one that involves and
engages in collaboration with equity experts
and women's organizations vulnerable groups such as women girls
boys and retirees in planning development implementation
and evaluation of policy and practices on migration
this work has started but is in its infancy
very recently the sir arthur lewis institute for social and economic
studies created a migration cluster of which i am a part
and which is championing championing research like this
that seeks to take a closer look at gender and migration
this the importance of of including migration and specifically the migration
of caribbean women who have been raised in a plantation
society into the reparations narrative cannot be overstated
to not include their experiences in the reparations debate
that is currently taking place in the region is short-sighted at best
and detrimental to the region's development at worse a reparations
agenda which examine these women's experiences
can move us forward to a more holistic and deeper understanding
of what we can achieve if we place migration on the table as a crucial
piece of the reparations puzzle last thing i would like to say that as
the number of international migrants worldwide
continues to grow rapidly reaching 200 258 million in 2017
we need to understand according to the un secretary general that migration is
an expression of human aspirations for dignity safety and a
better future there is a clear need
for more justice-based and gender-sensitive migration policies
which are also sensitive to other factors
such as such as age disability ethnicity religion
and sexuality understanding the benefits of migrations
migration has tied up in the reparations agenda
i am hoping will help us and by us i mean caribbean people
both at home but also and more importantly abroad
as well as those interested in repairing injustice
to see the need in demanding our own conversations
to include how we can in addition to calling for debt
cancellation and compensation get closer to reperto
reparatory justice that include these things including advocating for migrants
from other countries who are currently being detained at the
southern border what i hope to have demonstrated in this
talk is that past injustices can have ongoing effects on present
persons who were not themselves personally
wronged by inculcating social attitudes that continue to accord them
lesser than equal respect and result in them having to enact
modes of survival not required by other groups
thank you
thank you so much
i only went over by three minutes
i guess related but one is where is the discussion of reparations what's
happening on the ground where is the position within are there
political parties taking it up is this a social movement issue
obviously the global political climate doesn't seem favorable to
the issue but that doesn't that's not my most important concern but where is it
within the politics within caribbean nations what
is happening with discussions around this
and in addition to gender is there a discussion that there's also this
discussion happening around climate reparations it seems
particularly relevant to the caribbean region as well so are
there where is this where is this discussion
happening right so there is definitely buy-in from from at
the regional level caricom level um where caribbean governments uh from
all these countries that i mentioned in the first slide have come together
understanding that reparations is um needed and necessary for further
development um so the government's on board the academy
is on board hillary beckels is was actually the principal of the
university of the west indies in barbados
and he's now like a pro vice chancellor and he was actually here
when when congress was talking about reparations and he presented to congress
this was like a few months ago because he he is like considered a global
reparations expert um so the academy is on board
governments on board the thing is i think the the the society
itself as in the people are skeptical um they are not
necessarily on board to the extent that they're saying yeah we need reparations
they're like we need to get over it and move on
these are the local people um and in terms of climate um
this new class this new migration cluster there are several
different sub sets so myself and natasha mortley who's working on this project
we are the people who are dealing with reparations with regard to gender
but i'm sure that there are other people dealing with reparations with regard to
climate no should we be having all having the
conversation with each other at the same time i do believe so
but that's not happening right now
so um you said that the caribbean government at the
at the government level there there's by and
what about governments outside of the of the care um i have no
critical that yes yes so the thing about the caribbean and um and how they
i used to work for the european union and i also used to work for caribbean
uh a barbadian governmental organization and the issue is that
a lot of the the relationships are tied to these um
what do you call them that in order to in order to move forward with anything
there are these conditionalities that are
always tied to it and so rep the reparations
uh talks with uh europeans um especially like the british for
specifically for the anglophone caribbean
are tied to the fact that and if this might change because of brexit
um are tied to the fact that the brit the
england british they are part of the european union
and so everything all the money is tied to
this europe this understanding of how is this going to affect
our relationship with the european union where does this money come from
we need to support the smaller lesser developed countries
in the european union before we give this money
to these countries who we didn't have responsibility for since
barbados was independent since 1966. so why are we trying to give them this
money talking about reparations when there are people within the union
that are suffering and need help so that's the kind of
conversation the kind of pushback that you're getting
and this might change because of brexit i don't know um if there's a crash out
of brexit it probably won't change which it looks like though there's going
to be a crash show so we'll see leslie um two questions kind of
connected to what he mentioned have i don't know if you've
noticed if there's a difference in the attitudes
about reparations based on the different types of economies particularly
yes so for countries that are wealthier has is the attitude and
different to countries that are quora and um
given the historical context of gender inequality
are there um differences for these now wealthier countries in the lives of
women compared to the other countries or the
effect of holy oh i see what you're saying
um so the first question in terms of welfare so for instance
leslie's from trinidad and trinidad is considered a wealthier caribbean country
because it's bought up every all the land and industries and
all the other caribbean countries including barbados so we have this
little spa um but in terms of the wealthier
countries i think it also has to do with also the
racial demographic as well because trinidad also has a large
population of east indians who and then and the government is
divided between the black people and the east indian
people and so one of them could be in power at any
time but they're aligned by race and it depends on um
i think to a large extent it also depends and you could correct me from
wrong on which government is in power because if
it's the east indian government in power then reparations is not a big
a big issue um if it's the descendants of african-american folks then
reparations is um a bigger issue and i think the
economy is tied to that so because trinidad has a lot of oil and gas and so
it makes that is where they get their wealth from
and so i think that the argument is uh is tied up in race as much as it's
tied up in wealth because then whoever's in power can make the argument
like we don't need reparations because we have all this wealth that we can use
um and then it also like where's the
economy in terms of trend that hasn't been affected so much but in terms of
the volatility of gas and oil like then how does that come into play
like are we gonna want reparations if the country's not
selling us oil and gas so much and you know the coffers are
dwindling or are we going to so so i think it's contextual in terms
of who's in power and what the global economy is doing
does that make sense yeah laura i'm going back to my
um my degree in international trade policy for all this stuff y'all
this hasn't
any other questions
thank you thank you so much