Bias undermines Caribbean integration
By Kisean Joseph Kisean.joseph@antiguaobserver.com A senior immigration officer is warning that prejudice among border officials poses a direct threat to Caribbean integration — and that every traveller’s first impression of an island is shaped by the officer standing across the counter. Immigration Officer IV Julie Osborne made the remarks on the final day of the […]
Black News 
By Kisean Joseph
Kisean.joseph@antiguaobserver.com
A senior immigration officer is warning that prejudice among border officials poses a direct threat to Caribbean integration — and that every traveller’s first impression of an island is shaped by the officer standing across the counter.
Immigration Officer IV Julie Osborne made the remarks on the final day of the 29th CARICOM Standing Committee of Chiefs of Immigration and Comptrollers of Customs, held this week at the Royalton Resort in Antigua. Osborne, who has spent 38 years in border security, said officers who allow bias to influence how they treat visitors from neighbouring territories are working against the very ideals the region professes to uphold.
“You cannot be in this business and be xenophobic,” she stated. “Because if you are, then you miss the bigger, better picture of Caribbean integration.”
Osborne challenged the notion — common in some quarters — that welcoming workers and travellers from other Caribbean islands threatens local employment opportunities. She said that fear was unfounded and that it had no place in the mindset of anyone serving at a border.
“Why is it that I should be treating you differently than how I would have liked to be treated?” she asked. “You do belong. And here is the thing — when it comes to integration, sometimes we are very sceptical, and we figure that, looking at the market, when it comes to jobs and opportunities, somebody is going to come and snuff it out from you. It won’t happen.”
She said the core mandate of every Customs and Immigration officer was to facilitate the seamless, hospitable, and lawful movement of people across Caribbean territories — and that the warmth of the island they represent should be reflected in every interaction at the border.
Osborne’s remarks echoed the broader theme of the three-day conference, during which Immigration Minister E.P. Chet Green called on Caribbean leaders to advance free movement not in spite of security considerations, but through them. The minister argued that the Caribbean could no longer afford to treat open borders and strong enforcement as opposing forces.
