(The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of this publication.)

Any discussion of migrant labour is of global significance. Countries across the world experience the movement of workers, as people seek opportunities that can improve their economic and social well-being. The accepted understanding is that an immigrant is a person who leaves the domicile of which he or she is a national to travel to another country in search of work.

This definition of a migrant worker makes it abundantly clear that it does not apply to the Africans who were captured or bought and subsequently traded against their will into slavery on sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean during the 17th century.