In 2007, the Caribbean emigration rate was four times higher than Latin America’s overall emigration rate. The Caribbean emigration rate has somewhat slowed, but the region nevertheless remains an area of net emigration. Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines show the strongest emigration movements: 9.65 and 9.6 per 1000 people respectively were emigrating in 2013. Of the countries included in this study, the only confirmed2 net recipients of migrants are Antigua and Barbuda and Suriname, with immigration rates of 2.23 and 0.57 per 1,000 respectively for 2013 (CIA World Factbook, 2015).
• In absolute terms, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti have the largest diaspora communities: over a million emigrants each, with most living in the United States (World Bank, 2015). Guyana and Haiti are, in absolute terms, the primary countries of origin of intraregional migrants. In relative terms, Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have the most emigrants. Respectively, the emigrant population is 58.2 per cent and 55.5 per cent the size of the population living at home (World Bank, 2015).
• Over half of total Caribbean migrants to the US, Europe, and Canada are women. Furthermore, migrants are predominantly of productive and reproductive age. Cubans form an exception – the largest group of Cuban migrants is aged 45 and over (Thomas-Hope, 2000).
