...Being documented helps to harness expertise - PICA

CONFIRMING ONE’S Jamaican heritage helps to streamline some processes for many Jamaicans living overseas. To do business in Jamaica, such as opening accounts with local financial institutions, proof of Jamaican citizenship is required unless one is a foreign investor, for whom different options are available.

According to Carol Saunders-Hammond, director of Citizenship Services at the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency, proof of citizenship also allows Jamaicans overseas the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process in Jamaica when in the country.

“You can identify yourself as a Jamaican, not just to be out there and say ‘I have a claim’, but to have a document to say you are Jamaican so that your voice can carry more weight. For example, you can be fully involved in the decision-making process, if you so desire, by coming home to vote,” Hammond said, carefully noting that they would also need to undertake the voter-registration process in Jamaica for the right to vote.

SECURING NATIONAL ID

Getting more Jamaicans documented, she further explained, also positions the country to better identify the number of Jamaicans overseas to be able to harness their expertise, and it will also assist Jamaicans in the Canadian Diaspora to secure a national identification number, when that system eventually comes to fruition.

The national identification number should be maintained for life. It will allow Jamaicans, wherever they are, to receive benefits to which only Jamaicans citizens are entitled.

“We have talented people in the diaspora, and we want to invite them home to make their contribution to our country; but, while some want to participate, there is a distance that they need to close between themselves and Jamaica,” Hammond said. “Confirming that you are a citizen of Jamaica can certainly bring you closer home.”