SERIOUS!? / Ivan Cairo
There is something strange about the way we view migration in this country. We pretend to be surprised whenever it turns out that our territory is not the final destination of travelers, but only a stopover. The ICF has now established what many of us have suspected for a long time: some of the Cuban visitors do not arrive here to taste our hospitality, but to disappear to French Guiana as quickly as possible.
The analysis neatly shows that residence patterns differ, accommodations are hardly used and travelers move on shortly after arrival. Surprising? Not for anyone who has paid any attention in recent years.
“The government sees it. The border authorities know it. And yet it remains a matter of signaling, analyzing, reporting”
We have become a springboard. A conduit. A way station on the way elsewhere. And the authorities that should monitor all this seem mainly concerned with producing reports in which they note what could happen.
Because no concrete numbers are mentioned. No arrests, no deportations, no confirmed violations. Except for the occasional ones. Patterns only. Suspicions. Cautious conclusions that are carefully packaged so that no one has to feel offended.
We now know the stories. The crates full of ‘new’ Chinese who got off at Zanderij and disappeared without a trace a little later. The waves of Indians and Pakistanis who pass through Nickerie de backtrack names towards Guyana. The Haitians who arrived by charter and were taken straight to Albina by bus were barely given the time to properly breathe our tropical air. And now also the so-called shopping Cubans who, according to statistics, would rather visit their French eastern neighbors than spend an afternoon at the market here.
It is a menu that is expanded year after year and we always pretend it is a new dish. The government sees it. The border authorities know. And yet it remains a matter of identifying, analyzing, reporting. As if writing down a problem lies somewhere halfway to the solution. As if a sieve that you describe neatly ceases to be a sieve.
Cooperation with the French neighbors is mentioned. There would be questions about registration, about control, about supervision. Beautiful words that are spoken in meetings and then disappear into a drawer. Because if you really want to enforce it, you start with accurate counts, with borders that you cannot circumvent by taking the bus and jumping into a boat, with a government that not only observes but actually intervenes.
Until then, we will remain what we are: the eternal springboard of South America. Everyone can stand on it, no one lingers there.
