Mini-Schengen in the Caribbean

Today 4 Caribbean nations -- Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines -- announced a free movement agreement. Any citizen from any of these 4 participating countries now has the right to not only travel visa free, but live and work freely in the others. Access to education, health care, and "other services" are already baked into the agreement, adding to a very short list of regions on planet Earth where true freedom of movement is allowed x-border.

This is a fairly ambitious regional mobility scheme, one that I'm sure will be closely watched by other members of CARICOM before deciding on joining themselves.

In particular the GDP per capita of Barbados is 2-3.5x higher than its agreement partners, with robust access to universal healthcare. Violent/organized crime seems to be relatively low across the board. Disaster response, especially with new open border policies, could cause acute housing or other infrastructure stress in a region known for hurricanes.

Lots of interesting factors to track over the next few years!