Jamaican diplomats in Canada working to meet diaspora demands

Just over two years since her Ottawa posting, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada Marsha Coore-Lobban is hailing an improvement in consular services as being among her accomplishments, but admits to challenges to keep pace with a large diaspora.

According to a 2021 Canadian Census, just over 249,000 residents reported having Jamaican ancestry, with more than 140,000 living in Toronto, making them the largest Caribbean group in Canada.

Most Jamaicans live in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec, but Jamaicans are reported to be in all 10 Canadian provinces.

Coore-Lobban believes the number of Jamaicans in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is currently anywhere between 200,000 and 300,000.

The GTA comprises the city of Toronto along with major suburbs such as Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham and Oshawa, and forms a vast metropolitan area.

While the high commission is based in Ottawa, Jamaica’s main consulate is in Toronto, with honorary consulates strategically located across the vast country. With this in mind, the 30-year diplomat readily admits that providing adequate service is a tall order, but not unexpected.

“So I would say I am [satisfied]. For Jamaica, we have a unique situation, in the sense that we have so many diasporans out. You have as many diasporans out as you have in, for a small nation. So, like, for instance, when I speak to my colleagues from other countries, they don’t have even a quarter of our diaspora size; some have like 20,000, 30,000. You are talking about Jamaica with nearly first stats, not the most recent stats. Canada had it at 300,000-plus. Ten years later, I am not sure what was the question or how it got through, but it was minus 100,000. That’s the stats, but if you are looking at between 200,000 to 300,000, we have one of the largest diasporas here and so you find [a significant] demand for the services because we are very patriotic.”

Coore-Lobban, who has also served in the United States, told The Gleaner that the consulate has had to adjust how it serves in order to adequately meet the needs of the large diaspora.

“So, what the current CG (Consul General Kurt Davis) has been doing, and I am speaking since our tenure here, is clinics. So, in addition to persons coming in, they go to various cities within the GTA on a Saturday [and] on a Sunday. As a matter of fact, when they had thanksgiving weekend in Canada here in October, he had a clinic the Saturday right before, and I was saying, ‘But this is Thanksgiving weekend, you know, isn’t your staff complaining?’ and he said, ‘You know what, well, we had booked it before and so we have it’, and people were grateful, you know. We have done a similar one out in Montreal, where we had several persons saying their applications have been delayed for whatever purposes, so a team went down to Montreal to be there to service. In addition to that, we have changed up our office, the timing, but we have taken on creative ways of trying to respond to needs, the demands.”

Coore-Lobban, who has been at her post since September 2023, said that in addition, she ensures that she keeps “my thumb on the pulse” by attending diaspora events in order to hear firsthand the issues Jamaicans are facing in accessing consular services.

Applying for and renewing passports remains among the chief reasons Jamaicans need their consulate, particularly if they intend to change their status in Canada.

However, the Jamaican Consulate is also the point agency for Jamaican pensioners residing in Canada, as well as international students.

“The mission here also does the pension refund for persons who collect pensions from Jamaica, so it is sent to our consulate and we send it out to them. So, we have persons who we provide a pension, we pay out the pension for them, for those who are collecting from Jamaica; and you have those who are travelling and need visas, and so forth. You also have students who are here, so you have the international students; whether to renew their passports, and so forth, they will also need service.”

Canadian immigration laws require foreigners applying for temporary or permanent residency or citizenship to be holders of passports from their birth country.

A significant number of Jamaicans also prefer to travel home on their Jamaican passports, while others need help to file taxes in Jamaica and apply for their Taxpayer Registration Number and driver’s licence.

karen.madden@gleanerjm.com