Introduction. West Indian Migration to New York An Overview

Abstract

The past four decades have witnessed a massive West Indian migration to New York. The influx—the largest emigration flow in West Indian history— has had enormous consequences for the lives of individual migrants as well as for the societies they have left behind and the city they have entered. This collection of original essays explores the effects of West Indian migration, puts forward analytic frameworks to aid in understanding it, and points to areas for further research. The focus of the book is on migrants from the nations of the former British Caribbean, who share a heritage of British colonialism, Creole culture, and linguistic background. The location is New York—the most significant destination, by far, for Caribbean immigrants in the United States. Since  more than half a million West Indians have moved to New York City—about twice the size of the population of the island of Barbados and five times the size of Grenada. If one puts together all the migrants from the Anglophone Caribbean, West Indians are the largest immigrant group in New York City. More and more, New York’s black population is becoming Caribbeanized. By , according to Current Population Survey estimates, almost a third of New York City’s black population was foreign born, the vast majority West Indian. Adding the second generation, census estimates suggest that roughly two-fifths of the city’s black residents trace their origins to the West Indies. The dense concentrations of West Indians in certain sections of the city have created neighborhoods with a distinct Caribbean flavor. As Milton Vickerman has recently noted, West Indian New Yorkers are more likely to go to Flatbush Avenue to develop a sense of West Indian ethnicity than to Kingston or Port of Spain.1 In the context of the near record-breaking immigration to the United States, West Indians represent a particularly fascinating case. Because they