PREMISED upon historic facts, the notion of the high level of emigration rate that Guyana suffered from over the last few decades which still persist – albeit to a lesser degree when compared to the mass emigration rate recorded about two decades ago – this unarguably strongly correlates to the underdeveloped status of Guyana’s socio-economic strata. More importantly to note, however, such conclusive inference is stemmed mainly from the crime and violence situation in Guyana especially within its historic context wherein Guyana had experienced a unique kind of crime and violence situation described as politically motivated crimes which usually occurred during periods of national elections. The major consequence for Guyana resulting from the crime and violence situation on socio-economic outcomes is that this has been the primary causation, both historically and presently, perhaps to a lesser extent, of a high level of emigration and by extension, leading to a great degree of ‘brain drain’ in Guyana. In other words, a large number of the Guyanese educated population have migrated to other countries and this phenomenon has indisputably served as a key contributor towards Guyana remaining largely underdeveloped, particularly the socio-economic strata; especially against the backdrop of the history of politically-motivated crimes in Guyana’s context.

In 2015 for example, the immigrant population of Guyana was 2.01 per cent of the total resident population. On the other hand, outward migration from Guyana up to the same period was a whopping 451,139. In 2015, 37.03 per cent of all citizens lived outside their country of origin. During the past two decades or so, an unprecedented massive emigration of people out of Guyana to North America had occurred. An average of 6,080 people per year emigrated between 1969 and 1976, increasing to an average of 14,400 between 1976 and 1981. Figures for 1976 showed 43 per cent of emigrants went to the United States, 31 per cent to Canada, 10 per cent to Britain, and 9 per cent to the Caribbean. Deteriorating economic and political conditions in the 1980s led to even sharper increases in the emigration rate. Unofficial estimates put the number leaving the country in the late 1980s at 10,000 to 30,000 annually. Many of these emigrants were middle class professionals, who opposed government policies. Thus, a significant and permanent loss of vitally skilled individuals.

Moreover, referencing the last labour force survey done in 2018, statistics showing the percentage share of Working-age Population by Level of Education Completed, it was shown that 10 per cent of the labour force has no schooling; while about 50 per cent (the highest number) of the workforce have only up to primary education; upper Secondary Education comprised just 20 per cent; post-secondary accounts for just about 5 per cent; while Bachelor’s, Masters and Doctoral equivalents account for less than 3 per cent of the labour. These interesting facts and figures, therefore, further strongly corroborate the contentions presented within this article and notes the importance of the level and quality of human capital to propel economic development of any country.

Against this backdrop, human capital accumulation has long been considered an important factor in economic development. Empirical work suggests that human capital levels directly influence the rate of domestically produced technological innovation (Romer, 1990). Moreover, the stock of human capital affects the speed of adoption of technology from abroad as shown by Nelson & Phelps (1966). The significance of this alternative model in terms of its empirical implications is that human capital stocks in levels, rather than their growth rates, now play a role in determining the growth of per capital income.

Much of the motivation for human capital policies in developing countries is the possibility of providing economic growth that will raise the levels of incomes in these countries. The focus on alleviating poverty in developing countries relates directly to economic growth because of the realization that simply redistributing incomes and resources will not lead to long-term solutions of poverty. Within this context, it is emphasized that human capital is an integral part of a country’s development and economic growth has human capital as an important factor. Recent research has shown that tertiary education has significantly affected the growth of economies instead of secondary education. Workable policies should be put in place to bring about an overall economic growth. Expenditure on health and public education should be utilized effectively and efficiently so that the country would experience quality health care services and a quality educational system.