This is an issue with which many Caribbean Governments have been preoccupied for some time. Because migration has long been a central development strategy throughout the Caribbean - for individuals, families, and governments - states in the region have attempted to devise ways of 'hanging on' to their migrated populations. They have done so by recognizing dual citizenship, tapping migrant communities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada to fund hometown associations and political campaigns, and in some cases granting overseas nationals the right to vote in elections locally. The suggestions outlined at the Jamaica Diaspora Conference in 2004, then, were in step with more general regional attempts to facilitate national development by harnessing the economic resources of the Jamaican diaspora in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. The proposed bond issuance, for example, followed initiatives of other West Indian leaders, like Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who have been attempting to channel the flow of remittances toward more stable and ongoing economic investment in the region. These efforts have garnered additional force in the contemporary period, as anti-terrorism legislation in the United States has resulted in the increased harassment of both legal and undocumented Jamaican immigrants, and has therefore been seen as threatening remittance flows. ${ }^{5}$ Of course, government directives such as those listed above have not only been designed for the purpose of 'hanging on' to populations, but also for 'catching up' with them, as many  
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[^0]:    2 'The Jamaican Diaspora Conference is just the beginning', Daily Observer, 18 June 2004.
3 'Tapping into the diaspora', Daily Gleaner, 30 October 2003.
4 'The Jamaican Diaspora Conference is just the beginning', Daily Observer, 18 June 2004.
5 'Warning signs - remittance flows to Jamaica under threat', Daily Gleaner, 2003.