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On the occasion of the visit to Britain of the Jamaican Government mission which is to discuss the implications of Labour's immigration policy, the Financial Times published a special study of the effect of immigration on Jamaicae I have culled the main facts and figures from this article.
First, the clearest indication of the importance of immigration to the U.K. from Jamaica's point of view is shown by examining the figuress Year Natural population Net emigration U.K. emigration as %
increase to U.K. elsewhere of natural increase 1960 54,100 30,269 31 5509 1961 51,900 37,645 855 7265 1962 52,100 19,911 8,789 38.2 1963 51,300 3,248 4,050 643 1964... 354800_ e257 1243. 1142 TOTALS _ -2652200_ 272320 20,970 —— -38s7
From the table it can be seen how severely the amendments to the Commonwealth Immigration Act in 1962, restricting free immigration, affected Jamaica, Emigration in 1963 decreased to 6% of the natural popule ation increase, compared with 38.2% in 1962 and 72.4% in 1961. There is a lack of reliable figures as to levels of unemployment, etc., in Jamaica, but the article gave some guesses which cannot be too far from the truths in 1960 with a total population of 1,639,000, the labour force was estimated at 648,000 with some 92,000 to 94,000 unemployed (about 14% - the equivalent of 3% million in this country). There are no official estimates of the labour force or unemployment in 1964, but with a population of 1,762,000, some estimate the latter at about 120,000 (that is,a population increase of 7% and an unemployment increase of nearly 30%). Put another way, it is estimated that a little over 20,000 persons jgin the labour force each year, but the economy only generates some 10, Yobs a yeare
The agricultural sector empbyelabout 37% of the labour force, but vecause of the tightening of international markets the prospects of increased cultivation is poor, In the manufacturing sector, although the problems are different, there is little hope of rapidly absorbing large numbers of unemployed, A factor here is the high degree of mechanisation which has actually led, in some sectors, to an easing of demand for labour in spite of increasing productions
It is widely felt that restricted emigration will mean that more skilled labour will remain in the island (in some fields skilled wages are higher in Jamaica than in the U.K.), but that a higher proportion of unskilled will seek to emigrate to other countries, The U.K. restrictions will harm the Jamaican economy and force it to try to absorb the full force of the population explosion, Thus the difficulties of the Jamaican Government will become almost unbearable - that is why such a high-powered mission has been sente In the past Bustamente and Manley have been able to avoid some of the worst consequences of their collaboration with neocolonialism through encouraging massive emigration. Perhaps one of the by-= products of Mr. Wilson's capitulation to racialist pressures will be to make life impossible for his Jamaican equivalents.