‘Our resources have dried up’ - Jamaicans in US finding it harder to send remittances home as pandemic grips country
Published:Sunday | May 17, 2020 | 12:24 AMKaryl Walker - Senior Gleaner Writer
Vanessa Barton held her head in her hands in despair.
She has worked in the US retail industry since she migrated from Jamaica more than three decades ago. As long as the customers filed through the door and kept the cashier busy, her life was balanced. Since the reality of the coronavirus pandemic set in, her income stream has been dealt a severe blow.
Barton has an ailing 88-year old mother living in central Jamaica and several siblings who she tries to assist by sending remittances home on a regular basis. That assistance has not been forthcoming in the COVID-19 era.
The deadly impact of the virus has forced the US to impose several restrictions, resulting in a shutdown in all non-essential businesses. Millions of workers furloughed, including thousands of Jamaican and other Caribbean nationals.
“Me bruk,” Barton said frankly as she spoke to The Sunday Gleaner last week. “Since the lockdown, I have not worked and have to be living off my little savings. I could barely find the money to send to Jamaica to buy my mother’s medication. Western Union line long, but my people never join that line this week.”
Barton has received her stimulus cheque of US$1,200 from the US Government and has dutifully sent money to help those who she cares for in the land of her birth.
“That was the last time me sure me can send back a money. I am glad to be alive, but I am not happy about being broke. I only hope the people back home realise what we are going through here, and after the stimulus money done, we don’t know how we going able to send back money regularly,” she said. “Take heed! Things hard a foreign during COVID!”
Remittances are the second-largest contributor in the income column of Jamaica’s balance account. Last year, some US$2.4 billion was sent back to Jamaica via the remittance channel. Of that amount, US$1.6 billion was transferred from the United States and another US$500 million was sent from other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom.
In 2016, remittances accounted for 17.29 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product – a significant difference from a global average of just over four per cent.
The World Bank projected a 20 per cent decline in global remittances this year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A study conducted by the Bank of Jamaica in 2010 revealed that 59 per cent of Jamaicans who collect remittances do so on a monthly basis. The study also revealed that basic consumption – food, utilities and education – consumes the vast majority of that amount.
It is not lost on Jamaican consular general with responsibility for the southern United States, Oliver Mair, that the pandemic has negatively impacted life for his countrymen in the diaspora, and the consulate has been trying to assist Jamaicans who have been pushed to the brink of the economic abyss.
Mair said diaspora-based businesses have also been providing essential aid to Jamaicans at risk.
“Despite all that is going on, the Jamaican spirit remains indomitable. Community leaders and businesses have stepped up to the plate and having been providing great support for those of us who have been negatively affected by the impact of COVID even though profits have dipped,” he said.
Another Jamaican based in California, who has been employed to the same company for 29 years, is feeling the COVID-19 pinch. He also sends remittances to his loved ones in Jamaica, but with the coronavirus pandemic came a 50 per cent slash in his salary.
“I have been trying to find other means to live, but I must be honest and say that it has been hard. I cannot even think about that (sending money home) now,” he said.
His situation is mirrored by Jamaica-born auto service and repair centre owner, Don Tyson, whose Boynton Beach-based business has taken a beating due to the lockdown.
“I have people in Jamaica who mean a lot to me and who I try to assist, but with what is going on now, I am facing tough decisions. It has not been easy. Our resources have dried up, and right now, I have don’t know when I will be able to send money home,” Tyson said.
“In addition, I own an apartment in New Kingston that would supplement my taking care of them, but the Airbnb business has dried up, and we have no money coming in. We are dying to catch a break, man,” Tyson told The Sunday Gleaner.