Claude Mills, Staff ReporterMEMBERS OF the Freight Forwarders' Association of Jamaica are reporting an upsurge in business because of the number of Jamaicans emigrating this year.
"We're doing more business now than even last year", said a director of a shipping company who spoke to The Gleaner on the condition of anonymity.
"My competitors are also doing more business. Most of my customers come from upper St. Andrew and Kingston, but this emigration thing is an islandwide trend. I even have customers from Portmore," he added.
"Some of them are getting a second home, renting out the ones here, while others are taking everything with them. They mostly complain about the difficult economic times and the violence," said the director, who is a executive of the Freight Forwarders' Association of Jamaica.
Freight companies charge customers per cubic metre for packing furniture and other items. On average, it costs about US$4,000 to ship a 20-foot container to the United Kingdom, US$5,000 to Canada, and US$4,OOO to destinations in the US.
"A lot of Jamaicans from all different backgrounds are going away, but mostly professionals. There is a rampage to Canada, in particular. They are going to the UK as well, but they're not taking everything, there just seems to be a mad dash to Canada, I don't know why," a staff member of one of the leading shipping companies, said.
"Once, when Jamaicans were thinking of emigrating, they would call and ask for an estimate, then they would wait, and mull over the price for a while, and then they may have changed their minds. However, now, they don't do that; they just call the next day, and ask, 'When can you ship us out?'" she said.
While Jamaica has a history of migrating residents, experts point to the unprecedented boom in the American economy as an important string pulling young professionals.
"I have found that it is mostly young people in the 27-to-35 age group who are going away," said a representative of Chrys Roch, a freight-forwarding company.
In a Gleaner story earlier this year, Carol Charlton, director of immigration in the Ministry of National Security and Justice, said there were indications that Jamaicans were residing in such exotic locations as Lebanon, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and several countries in Africa.
According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, net migrations reached an all-time high in the '90s in 1998 when there were net migrations of 20,133 residents.
A total of 13,299 Jamaicans emigrated to the United States and Canada in 1999 compared to 10,064 in 1998.
In 1976, the year of the State of Emergency, there was a net migration of 22,200, an almost two-fold increase of the 12,100 in 1975. Net migrations reached an historical high of 38,935 persons in 1988.
