The Ministry of Immigration announced recently that a surprisingly low number of persons who are illegally in Belize had applied to have their status regularized through a special amnesty program that began last month; however, when the program is completed, the ministry expects that between 40,000 and 60,000 persons, mostly from Central America, will have availed themselves of the opportunity to come out of the shadows.
After their statuses are regularized, individuals will have the opportunity to apply to become full citizens. If the number anticipated by the GOB is realized, and they all move on to citizenship, in a short period the number of citizens in Belize will have expanded by more than 10%.
Colonial Belize (British Honduras) aimed for a population of 300,000 by 1975, but in that year our population was only 133,000 persons. It was more than a quarter century later, in 2007, that our population reached 300,000. Allen D. Bushong, in the online book published by the University of Florida, AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT IN BRITISH HONDURAS: A GEOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION OF ITS DEVELOPMENT, says in 1959 the Downie Report, a study commissioned by the government, projected that for Belizeto be viable as a country, its population would need to increase at a rate of 14,000 persons yearly.
Bushong said that there were numerous studies on our “under population problem” prior to the Downie report, and they all looked to the Caribbean, particularly to densely populated Jamaica, for people to increase our population. According to Bushong, between 1953 and 1957 “the average number of arrivals and departures was 149 and 67 per year for an average yearly net gain of 82.” The bar for entry into Belize might have been set too high. Immigrants had to engage in agriculture; make a deposit of US$84; have the funds to buy/lease a parcel and develop it; build a house; have a police certificate of character; and on top of that the authorities considered “a minimum sum of US$1,400 per person proof” that they would not become “a financial burden on the colonial government.”
Bushong said an estimated 200 to 300 Central Americans crossed “freely back and forth” daily to work in the timber industry, but there were no official records to show whether the country experienced “a net gain or loss from such relatively short-distance migration.”
Census reports suggest that Central Americans didn’t find Belize an especially attractive place to live during the colonial period. Our attractiveness as a home for Central Americans increased when Guatemala and El Salvador were ravaged by civil wars, and those who had aims to reach the United States discovered that we were a good place from which to launch attempts at US entry. Over the last four decades, thousands of immigrants have come to Belize, mostly from Central America, and that has contributed greatly to a near tripling of our population, from 144,000 in 1980 to an estimated 400,000 at this time.
There is much to be gained from a larger population, the greatest positive by far being increased economic opportunities. With a larger market, Belize’s manufacturers will be more competitive; the cost of producing goods will be lower, the profits greater. Those in the arts and entertainment sector would also benefit from an expanded local market for their products.
There are disadvantages to a larger population, and these include more stress on environmental resources — our forests, our wildlife, our marine stock, our water quality; more demand on public schools and hospitals; and the end of the laid-back world that many of us cherish, the world where everyone knows everyone. One “cost” of immigration-led growth is the change in the racial makeup, and in Belize the Afro group has seen a dramatic fall as a percentage of the population. In 1980, 39.7% of Belize’s population was Creole/Kriol, and in the last census it had fallen to 24.9%; in 1980, 7% of Belizeans were Garifuna, and that has fallen to 6.1%.
The change in Belize’s racial makeup, from Afro to Mestizo/Maya, is inevitable; only the rate of that change is controllable. We are a country with strong Caribbean roots, but we are far from the Caribbean islands; we have strong Mestizo/Mayan roots, and we are near to countries with millions of Mestizo/Mayan people.
No racial majority ever gave up its place as meekly as Afro Belizeans have. In the US, a country that has been European-dominated ever since that group massacred and started displacing the Plains Indians of North America around two hundred years ago, the inevitable flow of non-European peoples from countries south of the Rio Grande has met great resistance. Those who are genetically European are using the ballot, stiff immigration laws, and a wall to protect their majority.
Of great concern to Belizeans is the impact on the local culture, which could get run over if the influx of new peoples is too rapid. Belize is just about the most unique country in the world. Our culture began forming over 300 hundred years ago, and it became more flavorful during the last 200 years with the infusion of many races/ethnic groups from across the globe who, to escape war and economic deprivation, came to this “tranquil haven of democracy.”
The process was slow, and while not as perfect as well-seasoned beans cooked over slow fire, our melting pot of peoples is a special thing. Largely, we go to the polls, and the color of a candidate’s party flag is far more important than the color of their skin. Largely, there is intermarriage between the races/ethnicities, though members of those groups that came after the first Great War don’t usually marry members of the Afro groups.
To preserve, improve what we have, we must face the issues that confront us. Our failure to properly address the poverty in some areas, particularly in parts of the old capital, threatens the welfare of all. A caller to the WuB morning show noted that many employers in Belize now demand that applicants for jobs be conversant in both English and Spanish. This is a concern (to Belizeans who only speak English) that is not too difficult to address. The language of government is English, and being an English-speaking country in this region is not only unique, it’s an advantage. We need to talk about these things. Regularizing the thousands who are here illegally is the humane thing to do, the Belizean thing to do, but we must be careful “how we do it.” We mustn’t hide our heads in the sand. American television is like the invasion of a foreign army of 10,000, one of our former leaders said. If the “regularizing” isn’t properly managed, in a few years Belize won’t look like the country we know today. Some change is good. But we don’t want to lose our unique flavor.