The past decade has witnessed a renewed interest in the contribution of migrants’ participation in US J1 cultural exchange programs to the social, cultural, economic and political development of societies. Migration has had a positive impact on cultural diversity whereby quality education and cultural exchange programs allow students and highly skilled professionals to experience working with persons from different cultures abroad while promoting Jamaican culture (Mejia, 2023). Promoting Jamaican culture while contributing to development through participation in overseas cultural exchange and international education programs is vital to the persistent commitment to achieving Jamaica’s Vision 2030 National Development Plan, which is to make Jamaica the place to live, work, raise families and to business. This national vision is localized and integrated into the UN 20230 Agenda for Sustainable Development indicators and review process (Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2024).
Jamaica’s commitment to ensuring that international migration is a crucial strategy of development is evident in the formulation and implementation of its National Policy on International Migration and Development (2017). Despite the fact that Jamaica has been highly commended by its international development partners (IDPs) for its well-coordinated inter-ministerial or national and regional mechanisms for facilitating migration as a strategy of development, a major problem that has been highlighted by the Government of Jamaica, especially the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) is the fact that Jamaica has no official policy to promote “ethical” recruitment for migrants for overseas cultural exchange, international education and temporary labour migration programs other than those within the framework of bilateral agreements (International Organization for Migration, 2019). As a result of this consistent problem, US J1 programs are misperceived as “temporary labour” programs and not necessarily cultural exchange, as defined by the US Department of State. This problem also affects perceptions and attitudes towards individual applicant’s desire to participate in these programs. Therefore, this research conducted by International Student Affairs and Travel Services (ISATS) Jamaica is significant because majority of existing academic and practitioner-led research on migration and development heavily focuses on the social integration processes of migrants in host countries or regions such as North America and Europe or the push or pull factor framework influencing decisions to migration from low-income countries or regions. Jamaica is also among the top 5 sending countries for participants in US J1 cultural exchange programs (US Department of State, 2023). The study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to applicants’ or candidates’ decision to participate in US J1 cultural exchange and international education program or lack thereof and the role that the Government of Jamaica plays in facilitating migration as a strategy of national development.