Reflections on first week of full free movement and voting concerns

BARBADOS--The first week of the Full Free Movement regime within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has officially begun to take shape, marking a major milestone in the region’s integration process. A total of ten nationals from Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been granted “indefinite stay status” in Barbados, allowing them to live and work indefinitely on the island once their registration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is completed.

The Ministry will now process these registrations and issue each national a “Full Free Movement Certificate,” confirming their right to reside and work in Barbados. Ambassador to CARICOM, David Comissiong, described this as a “pioneering venture” that demonstrates real progress toward realizing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

He noted that the four participating member states—Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines—have made a “critical breakthrough” in the decades-long effort to treat the region’s economies as one single domestic space. “If our small Caribbean nations are to compete effectively in an increasingly hostile global market, we must combine and optimize our collective resources,” Comissiong said.

The new regime goes beyond the existing arrangements for the movement of business, capital, and certain skilled categories, extending full mobility rights to all citizens of the four nations, except those deemed threats to national security, public health, or likely to become a charge on the public purse.

“The Full Free Movement regime is for persons moving for good and wholesome reasons—to pursue career and life opportunities, and to contribute constructively to their new host society,” Comissiong explained.

Questions have emerged, however, about whether nationals from St. Vincent, Dominica, and Belize who take up residence in Barbados will be eligible to vote in national elections. Comissiong clarified that voting rights are governed by the Representation of the People Act (Chapter 12). Under Section 7(1)(b), Commonwealth citizens other than Barbadians qualify to vote only after residing in Barbados for at least three consecutive years before applying for registration as electors.

“This means that those first ten nationals will need to complete three years of residence before applying to be placed on the electoral list,” he stated, adding that Barbados’ electoral roll contained about 264,000 names as of 2022.

He cautioned against allowing partisan debates about voting to overshadow the larger purpose of the initiative. “We must not let titillating discourses distract from the core reason for this regime,” Comissiong emphasized. “Our region continues to lose too many of our brightest and most productive citizens to North America and Europe. This ‘brain drain’ weakens our societies.”

Barbados, he said, faces an acute demographic and developmental challenge: a low birth rate, an ageing population, and a persistent loss of skilled professionals through migration. “We are losing the very people we most need for national development,” Comissiong noted.

To counter this, he argued, CARICOM must make the region more attractive and rewarding for its youth. “The fundamental reason for the Full Free Movement regime is to create opportunities within our region so our young, educated citizens choose to stay and build the Caribbean,” he said.

Comissiong also urged further innovation beyond free movement, calling for policies and initiatives that would make the Caribbean truly feel like home to its young people. “Let us create a community in which our youth are free to stretch themselves, to roam, and to grow without hindrance,” he said. “That is what our Caribbean integration movement is ultimately about.”

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