The old patriotic song, There’s No Place Like Home, should have special significance for Anguillians and their off-springs residing in every corner of the world today. The rapid development and economic boom now being experienced, should serve as a magic wand to bring about the sudden mass appearance of many of our nationals from abroad.

Take a look at our front page and see who are being attracted to Anguilla, while our own people are living outside the island and are, perhaps, in real need of new opportunities to boost their economic lives and underwrite their future in a more satisfying, gainful and tangible manner.
Of course, we welcome every foreign worker to Anguilla at a time when the labour market is so very intensive. What we are saying is that our people must not allow themselves to be left out from the pleasure of participating in the development of their homeland. They must not simply sit back in other people’s countries while the nationals from those parts of the world come from the east, the west, the north and the south, and take their places in Anguilla.
The clarion call to Anguillians abroad is to come home while they are still in their productive years. Anguilla has employment opportunities for many, many years to come. There was a time in our history when our people, faced with abject poverty and lack of jobs, had to travel far and near to earn a living and contribute to the island’s then remittance economy. Those days, thank God, are long gone. Be patriotic. Come home. Enjoy the serenity, prosperity and family life in Anguilla. Choose the job you are qualified and skilled to perform in and begin a new life at home.
To this end, we wholeheartedly endorse the call by Chief Minister, the Hon. Osbourne Fleming, published elsewhere in this edition of The Anguillian, for qualified and skilled Anguillians to take up employment opportunities in Anguilla. It is a call that is being echoed and re-echoed in other circles. While there is a need for foreign labour to fill many of the jobs on the island, the fact remains that Anguillians have the first chance and they must take it wherever and whenever possible.
Joyce Kentish of the Conch Bay Development Project, put it very succinctly and beautifully when she said last week: Wherever there is an Anguillian with the requisite skills, expertise and competence, then that Anguillian must be favoured above anybody else.
It is up to Anguillians to take the leap of faith and come home. Surely, There’s no place like home. Come, nuh!

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