I do not know the Statistic, but I can guess that Jamaicans have to fall within the top 10 countries whose residents return home after spending years abroad. However, returning home to their homeland after years of hard work is not a pleasant experience for many. Returning residents have now become


victims of fraud, government taxation, and outright robbery. Just recently one returning resident lost J$20 Million in the usual 'Let me build your house scam.'

From the government to the ordinary man on the street everyone is targeting foreigners. With Jamaica GDP almost nil, the way of life is for the government to depend on remittance and returning resident bringing in goods to overcharge them while the man on the street waiting to rob them. There are many government ministers and ordinary citizen with Visas, Green Cards and US passport but they only use it to shop in Miami. They would not spend a week in New York, London or Ontario. Why? It is too cold to work and go through that hard life. Yet the same people can't wait until someone go abroad spend 40 years to save their little money to rid them of it by whatever means necessary.

Can you imagine what Jamaica would be like without remittances and the support from residents abroad of their family in Jamaica? It would be total judgment. Yet there is no respect given to returning residents and very little protection from the government. The politicians pretend that they have the solutions and it is because they are bright and smart why they keep the country going when all they do is sit down and wait for the foreign exchange and the foreign goods to come in. If the government does not do more to protect returning residents, one day there will be none and even they  may have to go look for a real day job.

Filed under: Current Affairs

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