Ricky Singh

A PAINFUL cost to family life for even "skills" categories of Caricom nationals is emerging across the Caribbean Community as a consequence of lack of legislation to deal with reciprocal contingent rights for spouses and their children.

At the discretion of a few governments, a husband or wife is allowed to work, in some cases, depending which spouse is not holder of a "Caricom Skills Certificate".

But their children could fall victims, without any such discretion being exercised, in the denial of, for example, much-deserved government scholarships, earned on the basis of excellent performance in examinations. There are examples.

Had the long-proposed regional skills data bank been in place, we could perhaps assess better how many Caribbean nationals with approved "Caricom Skills Certificates" may find having a family to be a disadvantage.

That is, when having to take up work appointments outside of their native jurisdiction where a husband or wife is not entitled to also work; or where their children could be denied opportunities extended to nationals of the countries to which they have relocated.

In discussing recently some of the challenges facing Caricom in 2006, I had pointed to the urgent need for at least provisional arrangement to deal with reciprocal obligations under the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) - the first phase of which came into force on January 1 with an initial six countries on board.

Such provisional arrangement would be applicable to, for instance, free movement for approved categories of skilled nationals to live and work, as outlined in the revised Caricom treaty.

I know that Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who has lead responsibility for CSME-readiness arrangements, is anxious to have this matter seriously addressed. So too is the Community's secretary general Edwin Carrington.

Caricom's current chairman Prime Minister Patrick Manning was on a visit to the secretariat headquarters in Guyana last week (January 10) but it is not known whether this was one of the pressing issues discussed.

Two examples

Just last week, the sorry case of the denial in 2005 of a scholarship to the deserving son of a Jamaican national living and working in Trinidad and Tobago for a number of years was brought to my attention.

It immediately brought to mind a very similar case in 2004 that involved the daughter of a Trinidadian then working and living in Barbados.

I will briefly share aspects of both these cases in the context of the issue of "contingency rights" to which Community leaders and officials have often expressed commitment, but yet to be given legal character.

First, let me point out that Chapter Three of the revised Caricom treaty provides the legal basis for Community nationals to enjoy rights of establishment of businesses and provision of services in wide-ranging areas throughout participating CSME states.

When the provisions relating to services are combined with the "right of establishment", then opportunities are provided for free movement of a large category of nationals, well beyond the current limited five categories of skilled personnel.

The envisaged significantly expanded categories would include business owners, entrepreneurs and self-employed people providing managerial, technical and supervisory staff and "the spouses and immediate dependent family members of those who qualify to move".

Now, contrast provisions in the new Caricom treaty and pledges from the region's political directorate to build a common economic space, appropriate to the aspirations of "one Caribbean people", with today's harsh realities for even Community nationals of already approved "skills" categories.

For example, in August 2004 the Sunday Sun of Barbados had reported the case of a Trinidadian-born student, Fayola Phillip, of Harrison College who had performed brilliantly in the Caribbean Advanced Poficiency Examinations, straight through sixth form, scoring in the process Grade 1 in all her subjects and an A at A-Level mathematics.

She ended up being the school's top student and under normal circumstances would have been eligible for the award of a Barbados scholarship. She, however, faced what proved to be an insurmountable problem: She was not a Barbadian citizen.

Her parents were legally in Barbados where they had taken her when she was eight years old. Her father was working at the region's premier multilateral financial institution, the Caribbean Development Bank. She applied for the Barbados scholarship.

Harsh reality

Then the harsh reality dawned: a child of one Caricom state who grew up and excelled in academic performance in another Caricom country where his or her parents legally live and work, can suffer the disadvantage that applies to all non-nationals - the absence of reciprocal "contingency rights for spouses and children".

Apparently, as the Jamaican father (a leading UWI academic who prefers anonymity) of the affected son discovered in Trinidad and Tobago last year, exercising discretion means getting prior Cabinet approval in favour of a non-national student in the absence of legislative endorsement for reciprocal contingency rights under the CSME.

The affected Jamaican student graduated in 2005 with straight As in four A-level subjects and in one of his subjects categorised as a "Cambridge World Rank Achiever". With such a performance he would normally be granted a scholarship by the Trinidad and Tobago government.

But he lacked, like Fayola, the citizenship requirement. He has been living in Trinidad and Tobago for six years. His father, an outstanding economist and social commentator of the Community, holds a Caricom Skills Certificate.

That's not enough, as more and more qualified Caricom nationals are bitterly discovering in the absence of reciprocal contingency rights legislation.

What made it worse for the Jamaican student, is that he could not be granted a Jamaican scholarship either, on the basis of his excellent performance. Why? He had lived out of his native land for more than five years.

It was, I understand, the bitter experience recently also of a Guyanese national living in Barbados for more than five years when he sought to benefit from a first-year law study programme at the University of Guyana. At the national level, governments may be able to come forward with plausible explanations.

Nevertheless, for the cases falling through the cracks in the absence of even a provisional regional policy on the sensitive issue of contingency rights, affected Caricom nationals could perhaps use the worldwide web to form a working group to pressure the region's political directorate into moving speedily on a common policy to enable drafting of legislation that could resolve the current dilemma pertaining to contingency rights in the functioning of the CSME

If the legal department of the Community secretariat is not sufficiently equipped to deal effectively with all the new draft legislation required to give substance to provisions in the Caricom treaty for functioning of the CSME, the governments must shoulder the responsibility in providing the needed human and financial resources to the secretariat.

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