Immigration Matters Affect Economic Matters

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – I am not about to join the political row over the granting of Bahamian citizenship “willy nilly”, as that is not my fight. I will leave that to the politicians and base my commentary on my personal observations only. 

In recent times, because of the death of a loved one, I have had to go to quite a few places making arrangements here and there to include an international financial services establishment. 

Starting with the horrid experience at the hospital’s morgue, I have had to remind myself constantly that I was born in The Bahamas and that I currently live in The Bahamas. 

I will toss out the disclaimer here that I am in no way xenophobic, having been born to a foreign mother. What I do not understand is why along my travels recently, Bahamian nationals were few and far apart and instead I got a whole lot of Spanish and Créole to the point where I thought my grief was playing tricks in my head. 

Before I go any further, I want to make it absolutely clear that although I had my suspicions, I have no idea if these people were legals or illegals. What I do know is that they were plentiful in number everywhere I went. 

Although my observation stands, I must commend the Bahamas Immigration Department, along with the Bahamas Defence Force for the tremendous job they are doing in thwarting the plans of those who attempt to enter our country illegally. It has been a while since I’ve seen so much frequency in captures. We should be proud of our tenacious immigration and defence for officers. 

I am very sympathetic towards those who seek to better their lives abroad. However, the reality of it is that The Bahamas is a small developing nation that cannot support thousands of illegal immigrants – educationally, medically or economically.   

During the aforementioned time, as said, I had reason to visit an international financial services entity – three times to be exact. While there, I witnessed the place flooded with immigrants and what I found interesting was the thousands of dollars being sent outside of the country. 

Bahamian and U.S. dollars were being sent out of the country in large stacks, by bi-lingual people who all seemed strangely and overtly familiar with the créole security guard stationed there. 

I asked one of the tellers if what I observed at the time was the norm. She presented a sinister smirk on her face and responded to the affirmative. As I had to wait on approval for my transaction, I had some time to observe the happenings carefully. 

If this is in fact what happens on a regular basis, then a whole lot of money is being sent out of this country by people who may not be legally entitled to live here. So in essence, if this is the case, they arrived here illegally, live in the shadows, work illegally and then get to send our currency coupled with the currency of the United States of America out of this country to their appreciative relatives. There is something really wrong about that. 

While there, I also observed an elderly Bahamian man become irate because a créole lady blocked the door of the establishment, laughing and speaking to the security guard using their native tongue, while he tried to get in.. The elderly gentleman was furious and the créole lady fired back, “peppering” him using her native tongue.

The créole lady switched to broken English and in her “peppering” the elderly Bahamian gentleman, pretty much told him he was a bit long in the tooth to be taking her on. The elderly gentleman stood his ground and told her that he was in his country and some respect should be shown to him and for the business establishment. 

The row got heated and before someone got crazy and decided to toss out the first blow, the security guard spoke to the seething woman in créole and calmed the gentleman in English. 

I didn’t like how that woman spoke to the older gentleman – clearly disrespect was involved based on her head wagging, finger pointing, eyes flashing, and repeatedly gathering the material of her dress together and tossing it between her legs, menacingly. Not good!

The Immigration Department and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force are working very hard to keep migrants from making illegal entry into our country. Let’s do our part, by regulating the services they use and most importantly, let’s stop hiring them. Well that’s how I see it, anyway!