Fear, not technical barriers, continues to stall full freedom of movement across the Caribbean, according to Saint Lucia’s former UN and CARICOM ambassador Earl Huntley, even as some countries move forward.
In 2025, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines broke new ground, allowing citizens to live and work freely across their territories. However, for the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the dream of unrestricted movement remains stalled after decades of promises and missed timelines.
Huntley has watched the debate unfold for years. He insists the obstacles are less about technicalities than about fear, and free movement could happen with the stroke of a pen.
“They (CARICOM) have raised a lot of technical matters, for example, social security benefits, contingencies for spouses. They have raised several issues that I do not believe are necessary,” he told St. Lucia Times. “But I believe this comes back to what I call ‘islandism’ and insularity, and the need to be protective.”
Huntley recalls the political union talks of the 1980s, when opponents warned of mass migration.
“One of the things people were saying was that if you have freedom of movement, everyone will rush to this island or that island. But people move to places where they can find employment opportunities. This is why people are going to the United States. If there are jobs available in a country and yet unemployment persists, it means the people there don’t want to do those jobs.”
He argues that such fears have slowed CARICOM’s progress.
“Part of the reason why we have not moved faster is because of this unfounded fear of mass migration to the countries that perceive themselves to be more advanced. This was one of the reasons why the Federation broke up, because the Jamaicans said we all would rush to Jamaica, but in the end, they were the ones whose dollar went down. Right now, we have a lot of Jamaicans in the Eastern Caribbean, but again, they are finding work that some of the nationals of these countries may not necessarily want to do.”
Politics, Huntley adds, also plays a role. “I think it is partly political, because the politicians do not want to lose favour with the people who may not be in favour of free movement and that may cause them to lose votes.”
Yet he stresses that the OECS experience proves the fears are misplaced. “Even with skilled nationals – media workers, entertainers, nurses, graduates – there has been no mass movement of people. The example of the OECS free movement has proven that the fears that people have are unfounded.”
For Huntley, the benefits are obvious. “When you can get skills or employment into your country where you need the workers, then it helps. The freedom of movement includes freedom of capital and freedom of labour, so when people can move across economies, then it can stimulate economic activity.”
He points to Guyana, with its vast land and oil wealth, as a country that needs more people to unlock its potential. “They need a bigger population to really get their economy going. But it is not going to happen easily without freedom of movement.”
Saint Lucia itself, he notes, faces shortages in construction and skilled labour. “We need to stop being afraid that too many people will flock to the island. Despite what we see over the years with our people moving across the region for sports, carnival and so on, there is still that insularity, and that is why we have not moved more quickly towards freedom of movement.”
Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre recently voiced his own frustration with the slow pace of integration. “I think the process has taken too long, it has been slow and frustrating,” he told St. Lucia Times, urging citizens to apply the necessary pressure to bring the vision of free movement to reality.
