“You move here and you get to buy
stuff…become a homeowner.” – Karen, a second-generation Kittian transplant in
her early thirties who moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles in 2002.
Jobs
Afro-Caribbean
outward migration from major immigrant destinations like New York to Atlanta is
being driven by a desire for greater opportunities (for blacks). I found that a
large number of Afro-Caribbeans reported moving to Atlanta because they viewed
it as offering them better opportunities for employment, education, and homeownership
than the places that they left. Boasting a rapidly growing economy, especially
in the late 1980s and the 1990s, Atlanta attracted thousands of migrants from
both within and outside the US to the region. The 1996 Summer Olympics sparked
large development in the city. In preparation for the Olympics, Atlanta built
apartment complexes, parks, and businesses in the downtown area, where the
majority of the sporting events and ceremonies took place. The construction
boom also extended to its outer suburbs. Additionally, Atlanta has become home
to several major corporations, such as The Coca Cola Company, Delta Airlines, CNN,
and Home Depot. Like other transplants, many Afro-Caribbeans were attracted to
Atlanta by its thriving job market. Samirah, a second-generation Barbadian
migrant in her mid-thirties who moved to Atlanta in 1996, after completing
graduate school in Texas, described what motivated her to move to the southern
metropolis: “I came to Atlanta for economic opportunity…I didn’t have any
friends here. I came strictly for a job…and they had a lot going for, you know,
a lot of development, which is also a detriment to them now. But, a lot of
development was happening.”
Many of those who arrived in Atlanta in
the 1990s spoke of the abundance of jobs in the city at that time. They
enthusiastically described to me how companies in Atlanta, during the 1990s,
were hiring people on the spot and, for example, how someone could visit the
city for a weekend and easily get a job during that period. One Afro-Caribbean
transplant from New York told me how soon after arriving in Atlanta in 1997
both she and her boyfriend at the time easily got jobs with the company Public
Storage, which also provided them with employee housing.. Similarly, another Afro-Caribbean
migrant recounted that she moved because in the early 1990s, people in New York
were talking about how there were going to be many jobs available in Atlanta;
she moved to Atlanta in 1996. For many of the Afro-Caribbeans that migrated to
Atlanta in the 1990s, looking to take advantage of the city’s booming job
market, their decision to move to the new destination was like taking a leap of
faith.
Atlanta has become a major destination
for not only Afro-Caribbean immigrants looking to achieve upward socioeconomic
mobility, but also for those who were already successful and upwardly mobile.
The southern metropolis also boasts a wide availability of jobs for highly
skilled professionals. Among the Afro-Caribbean professionals in this study,
none reported having trouble finding employment in Atlanta, including those who
migrated to the city in the 1990s and in the 2000s. This might be due to the
fact that several migrants arrived in Atlanta already with jobs, after the
companies that they worked for transferred them there. Interestingly, a few
Afro-Caribbean migrants that I spoke to reported that they were considering
moving to Atlanta before their jobs relocated them there. Kerry, a
second-generation Trinidadian immigrant in her late thirties, received a
promotion at her job that required her to move to Atlanta in 1994, rather than
in 1996 as she was planning. Though she was migrating from New York to Atlanta,
her transition to Atlanta felt seamless because all she had to do was pack her
bags and head there. At the time, the company that she worked for had moved
entire departments of its New York offices to Atlanta, so she already knew
people, when she arrived. Similarly, Keith, a thirty-five year old migrant of
Trinidadian descent, also moved to Atlanta after his job relocated him there.
He was in the military and was first stationed at Fort Benning in Columbus,
Georgia from 2006 to 2007. He told me that after he completed a 15-month
assignment in Iraq, he asked to be assigned back in Georgia in 2008 because he
and his wife liked living in metro Atlanta so much.
The
recent economic recession that has had great impact upon the United States and
many other countries has also had an impact on Atlanta’s economy by decreasing the
availability of jobs. The experience of Jeff, a Barbadian transplant in his
late twenties, is a good example of how post-1990 migrants have been affected
by Atlanta’s declining economy. He moved to Atlanta from Boston in 2003 and had
been unemployed for several months, since he got laid off from his construction
job in early 2009. He told me that it had been hard to find permanent work
because Atlanta’s construction industry was hit very hard by the recession. He
explained that many construction projects had been postponed, or abandoned completely,
due to lack of funding. While I lived in Atlanta from 2009 to 2010, I came
across several abandoned building projects (with for-sale signs), specifically
for apartment complexes, around the metro area. Ironically, at the same time I
saw many construction projects under development around Atlanta. When I was
searching for an apartment in which to live, I visited several brand new
apartment complexes around the city. The apartment complex that I ultimately
chose was built 6 months before I moved there in late August 2009, and was
still under construction when I moved in. The Atlanta area continues to build
and expand as if it anticipates continued rapid population growth for another
decade or two. And, despite the recession, Afro-Caribbean immigrants continue
to migrate to Atlanta in large numbers. In a report on race and ethnicity for
the Brookings Institution, William Frey (2010) found that Latino and Asian
migration to new immigrant destinations, including Atlanta, had slowed due to
the recession and the housing market collapse, and had redirected towards
traditional destinations. However, my research shows that Afro-Caribbean
migration to Atlanta has not been slowed by the recession. Though the declining
economy has tightened up the city’s job market, many of the Afro-Caribbean
migrants I interviewed told me that they still saw Atlanta as a place that
offered many opportunities—especially for homeownership and a better quality of
life—and most importantly, that they would recommend other Afro-Caribbeans move
there.
No comments:
Post a Comment