CARICOM and the politics of migration :securitisation and the free movement of community nationals in Barbados

Abstract

This thesis seeks to understand how the ‘free movement of CARICOM nationals’ (FMCN) and intra-regional migration have become securitised in Barbados. The key aim of the thesis is to understand the social facts constitutive of the FMCN in Barbados. The thesis presents data on key securitising actors and audiences in Barbados. It analyses how Caribbean Community (CARICOM) migrants are understood to be posing threats and dangers to the Barbadian society and/or state. The processes, interactions, and discursive practices that lead to these conditions of security/insecurity are then examined in more detail. The thesis, on the basis of an instrumental case study of Barbados, advances social constructivism and the Copenhagen School’s concept of securitisation as the most appropriate theoretical framework for gaining an understanding on the FMCN and intra-CARICOM migration dynamics. Primary data are drawn from a selection of methods incorporating elite interviews with key state/institutional leaders and the media. This method is complimented with documentary research in the format of parliamentary debates; government speeches and reports; books and journals; communiqués; and newspaper articles. The thesis engages with critical discourse analysis in order to gain analytical purchase on agency within domestic and international structures. It argues that market forces, material conditions, cultural constraints, and technological forces are crucial indicators for any reading of the securitisations taking place in the transnational and national spaces of CARICOM. The key findings and analyses show significant challenges for Barbados regarding perceptions of national versus regional identities. With the functioning of the FMCN, the social construction of fear and mistrust leads to grave misunderstandings among multiple actors. The thesis’ original contribution stems from analysing the securitisation dynamics underpinning FMCN and intra-CARICOM migration in Barbados and CARICOM.