SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Caribbean nationals in the United States who are pushing to be included as a separate category in that country's census count are about to launch 'CaribID 2010', a campaign to urge the government to allow them to be counted as the 17th group on the census form in 2010.

Irwine Clare, managing director of Caribbean Immigrant Services, told delegates at the 12th Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable tourism (CMEx X11) here in Puerto Rico that CaribID is in the process of getting a congressional bill introduced in the House to call officially for the category.

This, he said, will ensure that Caribbean nationals can finally be able to tell their story in numbers and be given the credit truly deserved.

"The call for action is for every Caribbean national in the United States to stand up and be counted," he said. He added that this means that every national will be sought to become the ambassador in getting the message out and ensuring that their voices are raised in unison.

The CaribID, which is spearheaded by Hard Beat Communications in collaboration with CaribWorldNews, Cbean Media.tv, Caribbean Immigrant Services and other Caribbean organisations and community leaders, will focus on getting recognition politically and to be viewed as an economic power.

Clare said identification of the diaspora market is important because that is the way to prove just how many Caribbean nationals are in the United States.

"Our Caribbean diaspora is underserved because we are undercounted or not counted and we have a fictitious number of 800,000 to 1.5 million Caribbean nationals living in the US," he said .

That number, however, is not quantified, as according to Clare, they are still unable to approach major marketers or advertisers to get the proper funding needed to effectively ensure that the Caribbean message is heard and that the services are available.

"We are part of the African American experience and that is good, however, we also have additional distinct cultures and needs that must be addressed," he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Carlisle Boyce, a business consultant, said the diaspora continues to grow rapidly with the figures expected to be in the region of 12-15 million people by 2017.
He said this is expected to be broken down into 5.6 million or 10 per cent of the Canadian population by 2017 and seven to 10 million in the USA and London by then.

He pointed out that there is a different socio-economic mix emerging in the diaspora where its members are more highly educated, with higher earning capacity and spending power.

In addition, he said the diaspora has become more geographically dispersed as its members spread across areas like China and India as they establish roots in adopted homes

As such he said the diaspora needs a development plan targeting programmes that are cluster specific with effective marketing tools for diaspora use and replication of best practices.

He also cited the need for the establishment of a comprehensive diaspora database which is actionable and which will take into account the best practices, size, location, and the needs and interests of its members.

Meanwhile, Michael Deflorimonte, emerging markets consultants who sought to explain the African American experience under which the Caribbean nationals are lumped, said the Caribbean diaspora shares similarities to African American market and impressively outperforms in selected areas.

As part of a multicultural marketing approach, Deflorimonte said advertisers should look beyond sports, technology , apparel and entertainment into job, volunteerism and leadership.

The African American population now stands at 40 million or 12. 8 per cent of the population, which makes them the second largest behind the Hispanic population.

The purchasing power of this group, he noted, is in the region of $645.9 billion with an estimated $1.1 trillion by 2012 .

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