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DOCUMENT RESOME #9 206 532 SO 013 550 AOTADR Johnson, Donald f., Jr. TrTLe Mobility in the Virgin I[slanis: An Introduction to Microstate Study. PAR Pare May @1 ware 11p.: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Studies Association Conference (6th, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, May 26-530, 1981). PORS ORTCFR MFO1/°CO1 Plus Postaqe. NFPSTRIETIRS *Academic Achievement; Developing Nations; *Fducational Background: Educational Mobility; Ethnicity: Higher Education: *Human Capital; *Occupational Mobility: Secondary Education; *Social Mobility: Socioeconomic Status: Surveys TOFNWTTFreSS *Virgin Islands aBSTRACT This paper discusses a survey undartaken in 1981 to ‘syvestiqate the influence of education on occupational realities and exvectations of high school graduates in the 0.S. Virgin Islands. fhe eoecific focus sf the survey was on the effect of high school qaradu2t?on on the young indigenous population's mobility expectatirns, pursuit of higher education, job aspirations, and job spprsrturities in the Virgin Islands and elsewhere, The hypothesis was *ha* expanded educational facilities and access tend to increase expectations without providing occupational opportunities to satisfy *haee expectations. The sample consisted of all Virgin Islands high schsol seniors on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John in May, 1981. Of the 961 questionnaires returned, 945 were valid. Initial analysis of the questionnaires indicated several patterns of aobility, including *ha* students sent abroad (aenerally to the Onited States sr Great Britain) probably would aot return to serve the Virgin Islands as their occupational possibilities were greater elsewhere, students educated at schools and colleges in the Virgin Islands and the eartbbean in programs designed specifically to meet local needs were likely to seek and find work in the Virgin Islands, and people with a brosd education sften fel* alienated from their peers. The conclusion *s that the net effect of hiqher education is more a negative than a pr>sitiva factor in the development of a microstate such as the Virgin Tslands. Additional research is suggested to determine the roles played by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education, and academic achievemert in the sutward mobility of students in the Virgin Tslands, (DB) AeAAKEAEEKREKREKRRAREKKKKCKRKEKRKRKAKAKKEKRRKKARKKERAKKEEEERKEKEKRKKKKEKE SE EKRKEKKREEK ER * Peproductions suppliei by ZDFS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * RRKEACKKKKRKKEKCKKEEKKEKKKECKKKKREAKKKKEKKKKKAKCKCKEREKEKSKKKKKRKEKRERAKEKEKKEKREEEK as ED206532 US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- OUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY “PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY “Dewan 1. \oupson de TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).” MOBILITY IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS: AN INTRODUCTION TO A MICROSTATE STUDY. By Donald H. Johnson, Jr. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Studies Association Conference (6th, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, May 26-30, 1981). Mobility in the Virgin Islands: An Introduction to a Microstate Study. A paper presented at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands on May 26-30, 1981. Author: Donald H. Johnson, Jr. Education. It was ranked as the top priority of U.S. Virgin Islanders in a recently conducted survey by Lou Harris and Associates for the Melchior Sr. Foundation. + I would speculate that education may head the list of concerns for many, possibly all of these Caribbean Islands. Yet, what affect does the completion of secondary school or its' equivalent have on the young indigeneous population? What patterns of mobility do these native youth expect to follow? What jobs do they expect to find? Is it possible that expanded educational facilities and access only increases expectations without providing occupational opportunities to satisfy these expectations? The role of education on mobility within the structure or out of it is umclear. It has been said "better job opportunities are for those with an education."* This may have a corollary: the realization that the opportunities one feels trained for may not exist in the Virgin Islands occupational opportunity structure. Thus, theoretically, some, possibly many Virgin Islands senior may wish to bypass the home occupational structure for the accessible American structure or another land of promise. I have just recently conducted a survey that addresses these issues and concerns. It was administered to all Virgin Islancs high school seniors on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. .ohn. between the dates April 29 and May 6, 1981. I received 961 questionnaires of which 945 were valid. I have not had the chance to analyze the 3 Page 2, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. survey as of yet. However, a preliminary glance at all of the questionnaires indicates that several patterns of mobility may emerge. JI will briefly touch upon these. The finalized study will attempt to find out if the factors ethnicity, socio-economic status, education and academic achievement are determinants of perceived mobility in the Virgin Islands. In the broader sense, I will - examine the implications of my findings for manpower development in the microstate. Let me restate that during my brief time here today I wish to discuss what affects secondary schooling and the pursuit of higher education might have on the youth of these islands. Will they stay, or will they leave? Since indigeneous human resources and adequate native manpower are necessary, the study of education and mobility and its affects on the social stratification system is essential, otherwise it will be nearly impossible to develop indizgeneous human capital adequately, Ideally, a balance may be struck between available manpower and occupational openings within the structure. Whenever ea baiance cannot be arrived at, or when people become mobile out of a given structure, due to emigration to another land, the broader system of social stratification may be affected. Available occupational positions unfilled by the indigeneous population whether due to lack of skilled personnel, lack of human labor, or people unwilling to fill the vacancies for whatever reason creates a void that must be filled by outsiders able to perform the. manpower needs. This new population : Page 3, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. may bring an infusion of new or changing values which may result in social, polit sal and economic change. The Virgin Islands have experienced a population explosion and shifts in the traditional social structure. This has affected the people. Eli Ginzberg state that "the basic resource of any society is the quantity and the quality of the people who compose it."2 This is especially true for the inadequately researched group of "developing" nation-states that have been termed microstates. Microstates have been defined as the small states with limited land area, limited population and limited resources, which are politically independent or internally self-governing, having the determination to be recognized as separate and distinct entities and the urge to move as far and as fast as possible into the category of "developed" countries In most cases these countries are the brunt of political scientist's ' or those "forlorn dots jokes, the proverbial "banana republics,’ on the map. . . as deGaule dismissed them."? Examples of such states include the islands of the eastern Caribbean. One Caribbean researcher states about those islands that "our human resources are the most important resources and the primary object or our jenenen. This concern for developmeth of human resources has sometimes led leaders of these mecrostates to create programs that would ensure the brighter citizens of their countries could obtain a higher education. Usually this meant travel abroad. The assumption implicit in this blind faith in the affects of higher education is that the students will return to serve their homeland. This does not appear to have been effective in the vast; recent studies have indicated that it is probably not true today. Friday (1975) =) Page 4, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. in a study of smaller eastern Caribbean islands notes e “brain drain" from the smaller British islands to the larger ones, principally Jamaica and Trinidad as well as Great Britain and the United States. Wilson's study of Belize notes that the people may view higher education as a "ticket" out of the country. Martis conjectures some educated people of the Dutch Caribbean seek to go to the “land of promise,” the Netherlands. | The Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies recently made the staement that he felt third world countries and universities were becoming the training grounds of the industrialized world. There is some past evidence to back this up. Statistics have incicated that of the professional immigrants to the United States, 574 were from developing countries. 70% of these had come in on student visas with the stated intent to return to their homeland. ® Is the net effect of higher education a negative factor in the development of the microstete? It would eppear so. The Virgin Islands, the microstate under study, has an interesting twist. They have an indigeneous form of higher education that has as its mission to meet "the needs for higher education in the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean."” The accredited institution offers the Associate and Bachelors degrees as well as three Masters degrees: Masters in Public Administration, Masters in Education and Masters in Business Administration. The college also conducts social and environmental studies through the research branch of the college: The Caribbean Research Institute. The college's development all has been done, and apparently done well, since the college's founding date of 1962. Harrigan states that on of the reasons for its foundinz Page 5, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. was to arrest the "brain drain. "1° Yet, "little to no research has been conducted in this area of the world, especially regardinse the affects of education, 11 hd particularly higher education, on these countries. This talk is beginning to sound like a study of the phenomenon, "prain drain." This is where the "better" or higher educated 12 ‘ a Brain drain citizens leave the nation for "greener pastures.’ carries with it a negative connotation. From the vantage point of the individual country the term is appropriate. Yet, this same migration when viewed through the eyes of the individual immigrant may be positive. Blau and Duncan make a strong case for the fact that someone who is geographically mobile will probably be ‘upwardly mobile.’ I propose that the term outward mobility be used for a person who has migrated from their native region or place of origin. Outward mobility does not connotate positive or negative features. It does not differentiate, but identifies. Conceptually, it would augment the mobility literature and add a needed dimension for the analysis of occupational structures. The loss of indigeneous human resources in a given occupational structure could be clearly identified. This neutral method of identification would particularly benefit developing countries, especially thosed identified as microstates. In these countries the human resource is the only indigeneous resource of any quantity. The concept of outward m@bility gets to the root of their societal dilemma: a lost human resource. From the historical perspective it appears that the conditions for education to be seen as a means for upward occupational 7 Page 6, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. mobility did not exist In fact, it appears a broad education had the negative consequence of alienating one from his peers. Noted Virgin Island historian J. Antonio Jarvis implied that those fortunate to go abroad and receive an education, upon returning, found use for what thet had and either "“retrogradeé to the local wl3 or re-emigrated. If one uses higher education eas a gauge for occupational upward mobility, it reiterates the trends we have noted. In the fourteen year period, 1925-1939, only 59 persons attended college. 24 As late as 1962, the yeer C.V.I. got its start, only 135 loan and financial assistance applications were processed for study in the United States. The perceived need for higher education, apparently, did not exist for the majority of Islanders. However, the Virgin Islands, in part due to the role of the College of the Virgin Islands, may be turning a corner. In the study I just completed, Virgin Islands youth self-reported that they have been accepted at over 320 different institutions of higher learning located in Great Britain, the West Indies, Puerto Rico, and the United States. The mere presence of the College may have the conscious raising or socializing affect of making students think about college as an alternative, vet this is only specualtion. I should also mention that my survey asked what types of jobs those people not going to college hoped to find. The majority, or so it appears from a brief glance at all of the research instruments, would prefer not to be associated with the tourist industry. Since the tourism industry is such a big part 3 Page 7, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. of the Virgin Islands economy this may be disturbing and have a myriad of possible ramifications of a political, social and economic nature. The youth who does not like the opportunities available in the Virgin Islands occupational structure may emigrate elsewhere. ‘Some of the students, natives, commented on my survey that they felt they would be over-oqualified to return to their homeland. This sample of answers is indicative of what appears to have already happened in the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islander, in part due to outward mobility, finds himself a minority in his own land. The native suffers form what Blake terms as Siestteniione.” Lewis characterizes the population as exaggerated individualis with little "community or social" a This may be a harsh characterization. Nevertheless, solid data is needed on how the young people of the Virgin Islands perceive their opportunities of mobility within the Virgin Islands occupational structure. In addition, the part secondary and higher education plays in the routing people out of the Virgin Islands structured should be chronicled. Hopefully the study that I just completed will get at these questions. While I realize that this is but one way to look at a complex preslem, I hope to find out what part ethnicity, socio-economic status, education and academic achievement play in the outward mobility of students in the Virgin Islands. The group I questioned wa» a better educated than the norm group of students(the norm is completion of the ninth grade). An eyeballing of the questionnaire, Page 8, Donald H. Johnson, Jr. indicates that between 1/3 and * of the respondents answered that they would live in the United States if the anywhere in the world (QUESTION #46: If I could live anywhere I wanted About to I would live on:). deee=<ther 1/3 of the respondents stated that they would prefer to be living on one of the three Virgin Islands. The major reason for moving to the United States was for better occupational opportunity. The main reason for staying was best summarized by one student who said, “this is my land, my home, my people.” Many of those wishing to stay expressed the feeling that ther felt they had something special to offer their land. However, among this sub-group that wished to’remain in the Virgin Islands, an alrming number felt that they would not be living there when they were-.30 years old but would be in the United States. Stated and implicit in this oy. is the fact that many do not feel that the occupational opportunities will be available to then. I will refrain from dealing with the implications cz any of these responses but close this talk with the thought that it is possible that education and all of its good may indeed have negative ramifications unless careful planning is done taking into consideration the unique nature of the microstate. Page 9, Donaid H. Johnson, Jr. Donald H. Johnson, Jr. is a Research Affiliate with the Caribbean Research Institute, College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas; and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Acknowledgements: Various amounts of financial support made this paver possible. + I wish to acknowledge Grants from: The University of Michigan's Rackham Graduate School The University of Michigan School of Education The University of Michigan Political Science Department The Virgin Islands Department of Education As well as generous grants-in-kind from the following community minded enterprises: Coral Air, Incorporated Delta Air Lines Tourist Industries of St. Croix, Incorporated (doing business as Budget Rent-A-Car) Good Hope School, St. Croix and Frederick Lutheran Church, St. Thomas In addition, I wish to acknowledge the support and encouragement of the Caribbean Research Institute, educational leaders of V.I. secondary schools and the Virgin Islands Daily News.