As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) moves toward Freedom of Movement for its citizens, there will be an increasing need to collaborate on matters of decision making and governance. There will be a need for increased coordination of data collection and management, to support strong evidence-based decisions at the national and regional levels given the decision of CARICOM Heads of Governments early in July, to expand to full free movement of CARICOM nationals through the region by the end of March 2024. 

Government officials from 12 Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) gathered in Barbados at the invitation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Unit between 14-16 August 2023 to discuss the data management processes that will be required to facilitate the free movement of CARICOM nationals. These national focal points came together to develop strategies to address the long-standing challenge of collecting, centralizing, and analyzing the data recorded from the various provisions under the free movement regime, including facilitation of travel, right of establishment and contingent rights.  

Director of the CARICOM Single Market, Leo T. Preville noted, “Having taken the decisions to expand the approved list of skill categories, given how critical access to the right skill set is for production purposes, it is of utmost importance that there is a robust means of capturing, analyzing and interpreting how the free movement of skills and temporary service providers regimes in particular, are performing in the CSME.” 

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) facilitated and supported this meeting, sharing its expertise in research on free movement in the Caribbean, experience in supporting states in improving migration data collection, and offering modern technological solutions.  This meeting is particularly relevant.

“The timing of this workshop focused on bolstering the CSME through the consolidating and harmonization of free movement data could not have been more opportune. With the region’s shift towards unfettered movement, the imperative lies in comprehensive collection, efficient management, and insightful interpretation of free movement data within the CSME framework,” said Tricia Gideon, CARICOM Trade Economist and CSME Focal Point for the Government of Belize.  

Discussions centered around updating the free movement data reporting tool, improving the flow of information at the national level and to the CSME Unit, as well as how to improve comparability of data across countries, and developing common terminology and definitions of variables.  The participants from the States recommended actions to improve the data collection and information flows at the regional and national level. IOM will support the CSME in developing a roadmap to continue gathering and harmonizing relevant free movement data as well as to improve data collection methods and presentation of main trends in the region.  

The assessment and the workshop are supported by IOM’s Western Hemisphere Program, generously funded by the United States Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.