Mass Emigration

During the past two decades there has been an unprecedented mass emigration of people out of Guyana to North America. An average of 6,080 people a year emigrated from Guyana between 1969 and 1976, increasing to an average of 14,400 between 1976 and 1981. Figures for 1976 showed 43 percent of the emigrants going to the United States, 31 percent to Canada, 10 percent to Britain, and 9 percent to the Caribbean.

Deteriorating economic and political conditions caused emigration to increase even more sharply in the 1980s. 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. This was a significant and permanent loss of vitally skilled individuals.

As many as 30,000 Guyanese continue to emigrate to the USA annually.

It is astonishing that more than half of the people of Guyana, over 700,000 individuals, have emigrated; 350,000 chose to relocate to the USA. Truly a massive emigration. Guyana’s population growth is now in the negative. Under 500,000 people remain in Guyana. According to some studies, of those people who remain in Guyana, almost each and every one of them is awaiting the issuance of an immigrant-visa for the USA!

More than 100,000 Guyanese have already become United States citizens by fulfilling the statutory requirements of naturalization. The overwhelming majority of these individuals support the legal incorporation of Guyana into the USA, in the form of a US Commonwealth or a Territory. That newly created legal entity would be known as Guyana, USA.

In 10 or 15 years, Guyana will be emptied of most of its remaining population. The majority of Guyanese will be living in the USA. What shall become of its national identity? Will Guyana be divided up between Venezuela on the west, Brazil on the South and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guyana) on the East?

The history, culture, and territory of Guyana can only be protected and preserved if Guyana is legally incorporated into the USA!