Orville Taylor, Columnist
In the past 15 years, the country has 'welcomed' some 33,268 of its citizens who overstayed their welcome in the United States, Britain and Canada, according to a study carried out by Andrea McCalla, Annemarie Barnes and Professor Barry Chevannes. I don't know much about the research capabilities of the ladies, although I believe that at least one is directly employed to the Ministry of National Security.
However, Chevannes is one of our tried and true academics, so it is difficult to put the sword to his work. Nevertheless, this crime study reminds me of television dramas where we are left guessing.
Dr. Peter Phillips, a former University of the West Indies (UWI) academic, has pointed to the role of deportees in the burgeoning crime rate since the early 1990s. If I am not mistaken, the homicide rate attributed to deportees has either tripled or 'fuppled'. However, as in a TV serial, we are only hearing from one of the crimefighters and Jake is missing.
I have not yet seen the study, but the highlighted findings are just too convenient and simplistic for me. In summary, there has been a significant increase in the number of deportees over the last decade and a half.
More than 70 per cent of them had been convicted of serious crimes, or what the United States would call felonies. Within the category of serious criminals we find a similar 72 per cent who were deported for drug-related offences.
As I try to 'weed' out sense from the findings, I find myself stuck in a crack on the question of major crimes. The problem is, in reality, causes of social pathologies are not as easy to identify, and the fact that the study is commissioned by two government agencies makes it non-independent although not invalid.
Classification of criminals
An earlier bit of work by internationally-respected criminologist and sociologist Professor Bernard Headley indicated that 32 per cent of deportations from America were simply for immigration offences.
These individuals were those persons who merely overstayed their time. I am willing to bet that many of you have done it. Among the holders of green cards and naturalised American citizens, a large number of them have been in this category.
As reported by Headley, who like Chevannes is connected to the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, the felony label is also applied to those who commit immigration fraud, which includes buying visas, fake documents and fictitious marriages of convenience.
Other perpetrators, who would be criminal deportees from the U.S., include shoplifters, debtors and persons who wrote bad cheques.
With this clarification, the classification of dangerous criminal becomes even smaller. As a matter of history, Marcus Garvey would have been labelled a major felon.
Now, let's be honest. It would be foolhardy to deny that there are deportees who are involved in all types of crimes. There are a few who do break-ins and petty robbery; some are in legitimate businesses but rob the customers by charging too much; doubtless, a large enough number of them is indeed involved in organised crimes and has contributed to the homicide rate.
Nonetheless, to establish a strong correlation between deportees and violent crimes in the last 15 years is to almost export the blame. There are other correlations which need to be examined if we are to be truthful.
We have seen a reduction of the unemployment rate from around 20 per cent to around 13 per cent. However, youth unemployment for males has been resilient. Young men between 18 and 24 have an unemploy-ment rate of close to four times the national average.
Furthermore, inas-much as poverty has declined since 1990, around 70 per cent of those who are classified as poor are employed.
If the truth be told, underemployment has increased and now more persons are working part time.
Marginalisation
Here is a better correlation for you. The increase in homicides and other violent crime is due to the increased marginalisation of workers in the labour market. More than 35,000 manufacturing jobs and around 20,000 agricultural jobs were lost since 1992.
Furthermore, there has been a systematic de-unionisation of the workforce. As a result, the number of persons who have had to complain to the Ministry of Labour over termination matters has increased 10 times since 1990. These individuals had no other recourse.
My argument is that the more than 5,000 persons per year, who consider themselves unfairly dismissed and are aggrieved, now have a reduced capacity to take care of their families. This, for me explains the crime problem far more than a few deportees.
We need also to acknowledge that it is impossible for deportees to become dons if they do not have an army of willing recruits. These were created by the social, economic and most of all political policies of both parties since the early 1970s. Deportees are not to be blamed for the fact that females are leaving males behind in academic performance.
Answer this question: who is responsible for the fact that male students are increasingly disruptive and have greater problems with reading and comprehension?
I suppose deportees are in schools teaching our adolescents to do poorly and form gangs. Is this why the word for behaviour that teachers use is 'deportment?' Get real!
Finally, as we look at the data, we notice that there is an increase in deportation but violent crimes have declined over the past year. How is this explained?
Our crime wave is essentially our own creation and we need to be honest. After more than 30 years in politics, we need more honesty from both sets of veteran politicians whose 'poor show' has 'bruised' us.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
