JAMAICANS have always been quick to recognise the financial benefits of going abroad to work - from the building of the Panama Canal to harvesting bananas in Costa Rica to picking apples in Ontario. But full-scale emigration goes back only 75 years and we've been pretty successful at it until 9/11, xenophobia and reverse immigration, aka deportation, recently caught up with us.

Even so we can always rely on our overseas brothers and sisters, primarily in the US, Canada and Britain, to keep our economy afloat. In fact, emigration has proven one of our most profitable exports, if you take into account the enormous remittances, the added value of what Jamaicans overseas spend on nostalgic visits home and the investment of returning residents on real estate. (If you want to get a sense of Jamaican-style middle-class affluence, take a reassuring drive through Manchester,
St Elizabeth and Westmoreland.)

The earliest pre-World War II
West Indian immigrants who settled in the US took with them their hard work ethic and a healthy respect for a good education. Moulded by strong belief in family values, which to some degree shielded them from racial discrimination, their offspring thrived in an environment where American blacks continued for decades to feel economically excluded.

Most of the early emigration to the metropolitan countries drew its numbers from the urban working class or under-employed rural population (like the Windrush generation of the '50s and '60s who became the backbone of the service sector in Britain) and who usually had basic labouring skills. Jamaica has ultimately enjoyed the fruits of this movement of people. Not so the more substantial exodus from the island since the '70s.

The 'five flights a day' emigrants were for a large part well-educated, white collar employees, entrepreneurs and professionals. Rightly or wrongly, they left and few have returned. Jamaica has continued to provide a solid foundation for those prepared to stick with their education through high school and into local tertiary institutions.

Others armed with comfortable SAT scores and financial support have done well at foreign universities, while our athletes have taken up a plethora of scholarships. Sadly, many stay abroad - attracted by big salaries and seemingly limitless opportunity. The haemorrhaging continues with the developed world drawing our skilled citizens, leaving us brain-drained.

Thankfully, there is a lighter side to our inclination to emigrate. Deportees, of whom there are hundreds, look north to the land of opportunity, too. That's why they make their way back, only to be re-deported. Father Albert, when he shepherded a flock in the inner city, was once visited by a deportee. When asked what he planned to do with himself, he replied that he would shortly be back in the States, flashing a bogus passport.

Even better, Winston Stona claims he once sat beside a Rasta on a flight to Miami and saw his passport. Stona maintains the photo bore little resemblance to the bearer. Undaunted, the Rasta deplaned but was apparently soon challenged by officialdom, at which point he made a dash for freedom.

The last Winston saw of him he was sprinting across the runway, hotly pursued, oblivious of the planes taxiing around him. Mind you, my friend Stona also insists he saw a lady attempt to take a six cubic feet refrigerator on an Air Jamaica flight as hand luggage.

It's the Americans who have the real immigration dilemma. Having allowed more than 11 million Latinos, mainly Mexicans, in, they are now faced with having to accept their presence and either raise their cost, or lower their standard of living.

These resident aliens are willing to accept menial jobs for wages below the legal minimum and often in inhumane conditions. Maids, nannies, office cleaners, gardeners, dishwashers, fruit pickers, sweatshop garment workers, the list is endless.

But the nation that wants gas at $1.50, ever-larger motor vehicles and an unlimited right to pollute the world environment is recognising that affluence has a hefty price. As to the trade-off for being able to import all those cheap Chinese products or to export (or out-source) all those jobs to keep operating costs down and shareholders' profits up.

What does this mean for the Jamaican still wanting to emigrate but stuck for ideas?
Despite a plan to erect a 1,000-mile wall to shut out the Mexicans, there'll always be a way to cross the US-Mexico border.

Step one: learn a smattering of Spanish. You're going to need it anyway if you're heading for Miami. You will also need to be proficient at the pole vault, cross-country running and swimming. Step two: register with an enterprising don who will 'arrange' your safe passage. Step three: infiltrate Mexico (best through Belize) and head north.

If you run into a border guard, immediately protest your innocence in patois as he is liable to speak Spanish as well as English. If all this effort comes to nought, take a trip to Canada - it has an even more porous border with the US.

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