Caribbean History From
Colonialism to Independence
AM217
David Lambert
Lecture: Migration
Tuesday 7th March,
11am-12pm
Migration
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Migration and Caribbean history
Post-emancipation migration
Migration in the ‘American Mediterranean’
Post-Second World War migration
Caribbean migrations: An overview
The trans-Atlantic slave trade and
creation of the African diaspora
Migration and Caribbean history
The key to sustaining an enduring flow of sugar,
cotton, and cocoa from the Caribbean plantations to
Europe in a preindustrial era, was, of course, the
importation of a labor force to replace the decimated
aboriginal stock. The solution came in the form of
millions of African slaves who survived the Middle
Passage and who came to populate the Caribbean
region. Perhaps nearly half of the roughly 10 million
African slaves imported to the New World from Africa
during the slave era went to Spanish, British, French,
Dutch, and Danish Caribbean colonies.
B. Richardson, ‘Caribbean migrations’, pp 205.
Slavery and immobility
Maronnage
Post-emancipation migration
• A feature of post-emancipation societies
were struggles over labour mobility
Free Villages
Post-emancipation migration
• A feature of post-emancipation societies
were struggles over labour mobility
• Where land was limited, labourers
migrated to places with higher wages
(Trinidad, British Guiana):
Labour demands in ‘new’ colonies
Post-emancipation migration
• A feature of post-emancipation societies
were struggles over labour mobility
• Where land was limited, labourers
migrated to places with higher wages
(Trinidad, British Guiana):
– perhaps 4000 from Barbados by 1842
– 18,000 from other smaller islands by 1845
• Created tensions between planters in ‘old’
and ‘new’ colonies
• Many migrants returned home
New patterns of migration
Caribbean migration in the early twentieth century had
changed in at least two ways from what it had been
like in the decades immediately following
emancipation. First, the number of people moving
about became much larger as U.S. capital investment
was concentrated in selected places, creating
thousands of ephemeral work opportunities for multiskilled laborers and their families. Second, migration
was no longer simply a matter of traveling from one
neighboring island to the next. Rather, it often
involved journeys to the far edges of the circumCaribbean zone.
B. Richardson, ‘Caribbean migrations’, pp 212.
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
Panama Canal
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
– Railroad construction in Costa Rica
– Sugar plantations in Cuba and DR
British West Indians in the DR
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
– Railroad construction in Costa Rica
– Sugar plantations in Cuba and DR
• These were American-financed projects
and linked to rising US regional hegemony
US regional hegemony
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
– Railroad construction in Costa Rica
– Sugar plantations in Cuba and DR
• These were American-financed projects
and linked to rising US regional hegemony
• Migration to USA from BWIs and PR
West Indian migration to the USA
Harlem Renaissance
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
• Born in Jamaica
• Arrived in Harlem in 1916
• Established UNIA HQ in NYC
• 4m followers
• Negro World newspaper had
international circulation
• Articulated Pan-African
philosophy
• Key role in raising ‘black
consciousness’ among AfricanAmericans
• Imprisoned in 1923
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
•
Second generation political leaders
•
Puerto Rican migration
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
– Railroad construction in Costa Rica
– Sugar plantations in Cuba and DR
• These were American-financed projects
and linked to rising US regional hegemony
• Migration to USA from BWIs and PR
• Haitian migration
Haitian emigration to DR
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
– Railroad construction in Costa Rica
– Sugar plantations in Cuba and DR
• These were American-financed projects
and linked to rising US regional hegemony
• Migration to USA from BWIs and PR
• Haitian migration
• Remittances sent home
Early 20th century migrations
• Response to shifting labour demands:
– Panama Canal (1904-14)
– Railroad construction in Costa Rica
– Sugar plantations in Cuba and DR
• These were American-financed projects
and linked to rising US regional hegemony
• Migration to USA from BWIs and PR
• Haitian migration
• Remittances sent home
• 20,000 from BWIs served in Great War
West Indians in the Great War
Consequences
• Continuation of a longer tradition of
African-Caribbean men returning money to
their families
• Consequences:
– cushioned economic downturns at home (e.g.
due to downturn in sugar market)
– enabled purchase of small-scale means of
economic production (boats, plots of land)
– reinforced patterns of female-dominance in
day-to-day decision making
Great Depression
Post-Second World War migration
• Patterns of migration from BWIs shifted
depending on policies in receiving
countries:
– migration to UK in 1950s at time when US
tightened restrictions (1952 McCarran-Walter
Act)
– up to 280,000 arrived, 1951-61
Empire Windrush
West Indian immigrants to UK
Notting Hill riots (1958)
Post-Second World War migration
• Patterns of migration from BWIs shifted
depending on policies in receiving
countries:
– migration to UK in 1950s at time when US
tightened restrictions (1952 McCarran-Walter
Act)
– up to 280,000 arrived, 1951-61
– migration to North America after 1962
Commonwealth Immigrants Act and relaxation
in US and Canadian immigration laws in midto-late 1960s
Emigration from Cuba
• Pre-1959 exile communities
• 60,000 Cubans emigrated a year during
early years of the Revolution
• Path to American residence facilitated by
US government
• US politicians tried to court CubanAmerican vote by promising openness
• Cuban government also happy to see
opponents of the regime leave
Mariel boatlift (1980)
Emigration from Puerto Rico
• Puerto Ricans have been coming freely to
USA since 1900
• 1950s peak with approximately 470,000
(21% of total) emigrating
• New York the main destination
• Migrants often move between mainland
and island
• Despite their privileged legal status,
migrants often lumped in with other
‘Hispanics’ (including from DR)
Emigration from Haiti
Consequences
• Continuation of longer-standing patterns:
– skews home population
– ‘brain drain’
– remittances
– returnees
• But also differences:
– longer distances
– greater gender balance among migrant
communities
Caribbean migrations: An overview
• An historic feature of the region
• ‘Push’ and ‘pull’ factors, but also countless
individual stories
• ‘Cultures of migration’ – ‘sets of shared
expectations in which Caribbean peoples
consider migration a commonplace part of
a successful life’ (Du Bois, p. 592)
• Increasing distances
• Fosters transnational economic patterns