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Bar­ba­dos, Do­mini­ca, Be­lize, and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines have thrown open their bor­ders for free move­ment of each oth­er’s cit­i­zens. But while the de­ci­sion has been hailed as a land­mark for re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion, ex­perts sug­gest T&T is hold­ing back be­cause of its frag­ile econ­o­my and mi­gra­tion pres­sures.

On Mon­day, Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) Chair­man and Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley an­nounced the launch of the bloc’s En­hanced Co­op­er­a­tion in Free Move­ment, a step be­yond the ex­ist­ing Cari­com Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME). Na­tion­als of the four coun­tries can now live, work, and re­tire in­def­i­nite­ly across those ter­ri­to­ries.

But econ­o­mist Dr In­dera Sage­wan be­lieves the move re­flects Mot­t­ley’s com­mit­ment to the CSME and could serve as a mod­el for oth­er states. But she ar­gued that T&T is not yet ready to join, point­ing to weak job cre­ation, slow growth, and for­eign ex­change short­ages.