Is Canada Poaching Regional Talent? FM Courtenay on Brain Drain

Eamon Courtenay

Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay says that Belize is not a migration threat to Canada and G.O.B. is seeking a visa waiver or a more efficient system. But during the meeting, a discussion on a Canadian province offering scholarships and jobs to Belizeans and Caribbean nationals will also be brought up. He says that brain drain is a real concern for the country, as well as the larger region, and that there must be some level of intervention. Here’s how Foreign Minister Courtenay says that Canada and other developed countries have been doing this. 

Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“That is an issue which I think is a legitimate issue to raise. What is happening there is particularly in one province of Canada, they are offering scholarships to Belizeans and virtually every single Belizean that goes there is offered a job before they finish. Canada and other developed countries have been recruiting nurses, teachers, police officers from across the developing world, specifically the Caribbean, including Belize and it is contributing to a brain drain. That is something that I have raised with Taiwan and it is something we intend to raise with Canada as well because they clearly have a program that is designed to take the best and brightest of Belize and take them to Canada. That’s not a friendly act.”