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Khaleel Kothdiwala, Immigration Bill 2026 and Barbados’ Future

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Many BU blogs ago, during what this blogmaster described as the Indo-Guyanese “invasion,” this blogmaster warned that Barbados needed a serious national conversation to levelset on the island’s changing demographics. This change, we were told, was driven by an ageing population and the liberalisation of freedom of movement tied to our commitment to CSME and CARICOM.

With the recent appointment of Khaleel Kothdiwala to the Upper Chamber, following the failed attempt in 2022, concerns about the dilution of the Barbadian identity have resurfaced. Regardless of the level of political praise directed at Mr. Kothdiwala, he appears to be an intelligent and articulate young man, and this blogmaster wishes him every success. However, there remains a broader concern about the growing influence of racial and ethnic interest groups in Barbados and what this may mean for the country’s social cohesion.

It is unfortunate that Barbados, once celebrated as a country punching above its weight, now seems to lack the maturity to decide what kind of nation it is being deliberately shaped to become. We cannot have ethnic groups who are born, educated, and working in Barbados and still expect to exclude them from any part of the running of the country. Or should we?

Against this background, the new Immigration and Citizenship Bill, 2026, currently being debated in Parliament should be of interest to the civic minded. The contribution by Minister Marsha Caddle is noteworthy, as she sought to clarify and simplify what is, as in any country, an emotive debate on immigration matters.

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7 responses to “Khaleel Kothdiwala, Immigration Bill 2026 and Barbados’ Future”

  1. Calm Down Avatar
    Calm Down

    Barbados’s population is black and 3.1% is multiracial

    if 1 man and 1 woman make some babies and families by sexing
    how many generations would it take to dilute the 92.4% black

    if black and brown and white and yellow make mixed race children
    then what is the problem anyway

  2. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    I read this article approximately 4 times, yet I don’t understand what point you are trying to make.

    You mentioned Guyanese. Since Rhianna’s mother is Guyanese, do Guyana and Barbados have an equal claim to her fame?

    Peter Morgan, a Canadian, was a former Minister of Tourism. Mara Thompson and Felicia Dujon, both St. Lucians, were DLP candidates in previous general elections, with Thompson being the duly elected parliamentary representative for St. John.

    Isn’t Khaleel Kothdiwala’s mother Black and his father of Indian descent?

    Isn’t Marsha Caddle’s husband, Dr Abdul Mohamed, of Indian descent?

    I’m sure you’re aware the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) had previously prevented Commonwealth citizens from voting in Barbados, thereby upholding a long-standing policy that the agency was not authorised to register anyone as an elector in island, unless that person was a citizen or had the immigration status of resident or immigrant in Barbados.

    In May 2018, a few days before the 2018 General Elections, the Barbados Court of Appeal ruled that people residing on the island for more than three years should be included in the list of voters, after the legal team of Wilfred Abrahams, Brian Weekes, Gregory Nicholls, Alexandra Daniel and Leslie Haynes who represented Grenadian Shireen Ann Mathlin-Tulloch, Jamaican Michelle Russell, Montserratian Sharon Edgcome-Miller and St. Lucian Professor Eddy Ventose, who formed part of a class action lawsuit challenged the EBC’s position of not allowing them to register and join the voters’ list.

    The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) subsequently ordered that St. Lucian, Professor Eddy Ventose, was to be added to the register of voters and was qualified and entitled to vote in Barbados.

    My concern is that, while the Arab, Indian, Pakistani and white communities have remained in the background, assumedly making financial contributions to political parties perhaps to influence business descisions in their favour, there is an increasing influx of Jamaicans entering Barbados who, overtime, may be enough to change to political landscape in this island.

    After all, we have a Jamaican, Marcia Weekes, on social media talking shiite and encouraging Bajans to ‘march up and down Buhbadus.’

  3. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    A country which pretends to embrace ‘others’.

    Yet which has never come to grips with its own majority population at any deep level

    Even as ‘foreigners’ were always accorded a halcyon place within the society, given a pass, allowed to corrupt politicians, etc

    We are now destined to prove Uncle Errol right. For it was he who said one day coming soon Bajans will loose their country.

    That the country now has as PM a woe-unto-man, ignorant about natural population regeneration, intent on following what her European mistresses have told her, we are not to be surprised when similar outcomes there happen here.

  4. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I am all for managed immigration taking all relevant factors into consideration. And I am not in agreement with the approach of this government. However, I believe we should be careful not to sound like Magats in the process of disagreeing. There is a way to voice political, socio-economic, racial and cultural concerns without disparaging, demeaning, belittling, stereotyping, dehumanising those who wish to live here.

  5. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    So ‘success’ is having a lotta childless women pretending to be ‘bosses’, while complaining that;
    – we are no longer a self sustaining society… 90,000 short of inhabitants
    – the men are mostly a bunch of brass bowls, ‘bullers’, and effeminates -except for the ZR and block rejects.
    – we are unable to get any shiite to work – despite having ALL available hands
    – our best young talents ROUTINELY choose to go and live in better managed societies
    – crime, violence and debt is increasingly the norm in all sectors
    – education has morphed into ‘eddykashun’ and we are not even able to resolve an 11-plus issue

    The problem is that we have no national LEADERSHIP
    …. and where there is no vision, the brass suffers,
    …NISSS goes broke, …retirement age goes up,
    …begging becomes endemic,
    …and meanwhile the lotta childless women do what they do best… TALK shiite and pass stupid laws.

    What a place
    What lack of vision.
    What a price we will ALL pay…!

  6. 2 - 6 supermix discussion Avatar
    2 – 6 supermix discussion

    It is good to have an X number of different posters with an equal number X of different opinions to add to the 2 – 6 supermix discussion as it flushes out many points to ponder for consideration which may all have some truth and it’s how the Underground of Barbados blog works best (without all the bitching like bitches).

    It seems a couple of dudes object to women or lesbians in charge and although the incumbent Barbados PM has not officially outed any proclivity leanings, she is not the 1st or 2nd lesbian prime minister in this world and the times they are a changing.

    I like to live in a place with every culture within
    this is what makes London Town more colourful

  7. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Lil bit more and I would have been one of those childless women. I loved being everybody’s favourite auntie, but never longed for motherhood. And yet, nobody would have ever considered me useless. This “childless women” insult needs to stop! There are many reasons why many women don’t have children. One of them is that it is so difficult to raise them mostly without the father’s full participation and also to pursue a career. The career is necessary in anticipation of the man leaving you for some young girl and refusing to pay you what the court has ordered after the divorce. I know of many instances where that has happened. I would advise all women to plan ahead and not depend on a man for support.

    My reason for not wanting children was that the world is a frightening place in which to raise a child. Twenty-three years ago, I didn’t even know how frightening it would become. And it is so mainly because of men!

    But, pointing fingers at each other only makes matters worse. Both men and women have contributed to the mess. As adults, we should be trying to figure out how we are going to clean it up. Some people need to grow up and stop with the nonsensical misogyny. Balls are useful for producing sperm. That’s all!

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