ethnic tensions still regularly intruded into many areas of social interaction and indeed showed signs of intensifying. possibilities for social mobility existed, but only for some individuals. the local school system produced continuously growing numbers of graduates for whom jobs did not exist, while it simultaneously excluded growing numbers of the poor from educational opportunity. emigration to metropolitan countries often siphoned off people with the highest qualifications and the most ambitions, while immigration from neighboring republics promised to reshape the cultural orientation and, quite literally, the complexion of belizean society.