Immigrants could ‘add value’ to local labour market

Guyana has seen an influx of Venezuelan immigrants over the past few years. While this has caused many to be wary of the strain on the local economy that this increase in population may result in, experts contend that there are many benefits to be garnered.

“I think Guyana should provide assistance to the Venezuelans,” renowned Trinidadian Economist, Dr. Roger Hosein, told the Guyana Chronicle. “Of course it is a humanitarian crisis and if you show up by my house, hungry, from a humanitarian perspective, I have a moral responsibility to God and to man to give you some food,” he added.

According to a recent World Bank report entitled ‘Venezuelan Migration: The 4,500-Kilometer Gap between Desperation and Opportunity,’ more than 4.6 million people have fled the harsh socio-economic conditions of the Spanish-speaking country.

And according to data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and reported in November, about 17,000 of that 4.6 million have come into Venezuela’s eastern neighbour, Guyana.

Comparatively, those immigration figures may not seem too large but when Guyana’s population of 750,000 people is taken into consideration, it could be deemed significant. It is for this very reason that Dr. Hosein contends that Venezuelan immigration is not “just so simple.”

The Guyana Labour Force Survey, published by the Bureau of Statistics in 2018, detailed that of the 550,831 persons encompassed in Guyana’s total resident population aged 15 and above (persons of ‘working age’), there was a labour force participation rate of 56 per cent, or 271,068 persons.

In a nutshell, the labour force participation rate is the country’s labour force, and is the sum of the persons employed and persons unemployed, as a percentage of the working- age population. The statistics indicate that Guyana has relatively low labour force participation.

Cognisant of this, Dr. Hosein said “because Guyana has a serious labour shortage that is pending, and I think that the Venezuelans are a boom and a blessing to the Guyanese people.”

Instinctively, once in Guyana, the immigrants seek avenues of employment to provide for themselves and their families. Such is the case of two sisters, Susana and Samantha Valenzuela.

In mid-2018, the duo left Venezuela, where they had “desk jobs”, and came into Guyana, in Region One. Unable to speak English well, the sisters experienced difficulties in their attempt to gain employment. Adapting to their new ‘home,’ the sisters are now ardent bread-makers in North West District.

Regent Street, arguably Georgetown’s commercial shopping hub, has seen a transformation in the way business is done; many stores now seek sales girls and porter boys that are bilingual (English and Spanish), responding to the large number of Cubans that come to the country to shop in bulk.

It is here that Venezuelans find niche employment. Along the pavement of this hub, Venezuelan food- arepas and tequenos- are quickly becoming as sought after as a Guyanese ‘eggball and sour’.

It is, however, not just a matter of letting the Venezuelans access these employment opportunities. Dr. Hosein stressed that Guyana must capitalise on the opportunity presented to increase the labour force participation.

SECTORAL LABOUR MARKET POLICY

“Design a sectoral labour market policy,” he advanced. “Here, you give them work in the rice sector, the sugar sector or any of the sectors for which it is difficult to get unskilled workers and build from there,” the economist further recommended.

With much attention being given to Guyana’s emerging Petroleum Sector, the economist cautioned that Guyanese must still focus on the “non-booming tradable sectors,” which includes the labour-intensive agriculture sector.

At a public forum organised by the University of Guyana (UG), earlier this year, Dr. Hosein outlined that in the first year of oil production, it can be expected that people will migrate from the manufacturing and services sector into the Oil and Gas Industry. While this occurs, it becomes imperative for people to work in the traditional sectors, and keep up the productivity, so as to contribute to overall economic development.

Through this policy, skills of the immigrants can be categorised and then channelled into the various sectors. Such a policy should also encompass the skills of Guyanese, to determine what skills are needed in the country and what skills the country possesses.

When this information is garnered, Dr. Hosein said a “formula” should then be worked out, where Guyanese and the immigrants are earmarked for work in specific sectors. Dr. Hosein said when the anticipated “economic boom” occurs in Guyana, the policy can guide efforts to capitalise on the skills present in the country.

While the suggestion of this policy is something the government can mull, efforts are being made in the interim to harness the skills of the immigrants in a more structured way.

UNHCR Senior Liaison Officer, Cecilie Saenz Guerrero, in a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle, shared that the UN body is currently exploring how employment, or income-generating activities, can be facilitated for the immigrants, and for the host communities they settle into.

united-nations-high-commissioner-for-refugees-unhcr-cecilie-guerrero

“Right now we are in dialogue with the Minister of Social Protection to see if we can open some community kitchens that could benefit Venezuelans and Guyanese who do not necessarily have, in their own kitchens, the equipment necessary to go out and do small catering or anything,” Guerrero said. Support will also be offered in facilitating the acquisition of food handler certification.

There are also sizeable immigrant populations in the interior regions of Guyana such as Regions One, Seven and Nine. Here, the UNHCR representative indicated that the body is also exploring the procurement of materials that can be used by the communities to make Chincheros (hammocks, in Guyanese vernacular), which are made both by the immigrants and by local Indigenous People.

Once these materials are provided to the communities, she said that the hammocks can be bought by the UNHCR and distributed to the vulnerable immigrants.

WORK PERMITS

Another avenue being explored is the provision of ‘work permits,’ where the UNHCR and other UN bodies are advocating for this, in addition to the three-month stay permits which are being provided by the government, through the immigration services.

“We do believe that many Venezuelans come in with skills that can benefit the people here,” Guerrero said.

In Lethem, Region Nine, there is a Venezuelan nurse who specialises in caring for children with special needs. In that town, there is no other person with that specific skill, and as such, the local authorities are trying to work along with the relevant authorities to have her Venezuelan certificates recognised.

However, this recognition and local accreditation of Venezuelan certificates may be precarious, according to Managing Director of the Migrant Support Network (MSN), Derwayne Wills.

He explained that there are certain “shortcomings” that exist in Venezuela that prevent the accreditation of these academic documents. In order for Guyana’s National Accreditation Council to verify and accredit qualifications, there must be engagement between the council and the Venezuelan institution the qualifications were given from.

This engagement process is sometimes mired because of the breakdown in institution in Venezuela where staff may have been relinquished, documents destroyed, or there is inadequate access to power and Internet connectivity.

While Guerrero highlighted that the UNHCR is hopeful that it can work along with the government to assist with the verification, and translation, of these academic certifications, Wills related that immigrants, whose skills could have otherwise added to Guyana’s productivity, are forced into low-wage labour.

“That is not the most effective use of the labour that is currently in Guyana,” Wills said pointedly.

The UNHCR has also found that many of the Venezuelan immigrants — women in particular — are desperate to provide for their families. They have been providing sexual services for money. The provision of these sexual services has been termed “survival sex” and, according to the UNHCR representative, this leads to the immigrants being subjected to sexual and gender-based violence.

Guerrero highlighted that the UNHCR is hoping to intensify efforts in providing employment alternatives for the immigrants to stymie the violence resulting from the survival sex.