Undocumented workers draining our economy
All the pundits seem to be concerned about our perceived porous borders. The latest initiative is to acquire long range vessels from Colombia—similar to the contentious OPVs—to secure our borders.
The irony of it all is hundreds of illegal immigrants are entering our country on a regular basis, straight under our noses at Piarco International Airport. It is a no brainer: Either Immigration officers are not asking the right questions to arriving immigrants, or are afraid to detain them as a security risk and then put them on the next available flight back home.
The following questions were posed to me when I visited New York some years ago: what is the purpose of your visit? Give the address of the person where you would be staying? (He had a catalogue of every address in NewYork to verify). Do our officers have a catalogue of every address? Give the phone number of the person where you would be staying?
Do you have enough money to sustain you while you are staying in the US? Any wrong answers were grounds for deportation. Why don’t our immigration officers possess the same fortitude to deport illegal immigrants at the port of entry?
Chinese come to our country in their hundreds for one reason or another. If the Chinese could come to our country and resolve their immigration status so that they could pay taxes and contribute directly to the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (Stem) initiative that would be positive.
In fact, if Chinese with advanced degrees and who can speak English could contribute to our economic development by enrolling at our faculties at our universities and hospitals, kudos to them.
About two million chinese graduate each year from universitie without a job in sight. They are called the Ant Tribe (BBC). Instead the chinese are coming here to open a plethora of restaurants, supermarkets and casinos; they should open a range of manufacturing businesses in computers, electronics, toys and household products that can add value to our GDP.
As it stands now, Trinidad and Tobago is a haven for chinese families to openly flout the one-child policy of mother land China.
Guyanese nationals are also putting a strain on our economy. They populate the East-West Corridor and their children gain access to schools while locals within the catchment area are denied access to schools for the most frivolous reasons. In fact, most hawkers of jewelry and clothing on our streets are Guyanese nationals.
They put a strain on our infrastructure, health and other institutions. Just like my argument for the Chinese, come with advanced degrees and contribute to our economic development. Do not come here to open a retail business or hustle and send all the profits back to Guyana thereby putting a strain on our foreign exchange reserves. The Government should make it very difficult for undocumented workers to access our limited foreign exchange reserves.
We need to declare war on undocumented workers. Nip it in the bud by deporting illegal immigrants at the source—Piarco International Airport. Immigration officers must begin to do their jobs: deport, deport, and deport... But how do they deport when both the Government and Opposition do not have a clear policy on deportation or, perhaps, they are bugged down by various distractions.
In fact, recently I saw an ad in the newspaper where they were giving guidelines for registering foreign workers. Even the Central Statistical Office (CSO) cannot accurately give the number of undocumented workers in this country.
What is happening in this land of ours where we recently received a failing grade of 39 from Transparency International—which is less than Barbados (76) and Dominica (58). Corruption is definitely an integral part of our DNA. Every one is willing to look the other way for the sake of the mighty dollar. Very soon we might see the evolotion of “China Town” or “Guyana Town” in this country.
We do not want our beloved country to become ‘a minority majority country’ (Jose Antonio Vargas-Pulitzer Prize Winner).