Race has played a significant role in
shaping the motives of Afro-Caribbean migrants to Atlanta. Afro-Caribbeans are
drawn to Atlanta because (to them) it is a black
city. Almost all of the Afro-Caribbean immigrants that I interviewed reported
being greatly attracted to Atlanta because of its large black population,
particularly its core of
black professionals, and not its pool of Caribbean residents. Atlanta has what
I call a “black mecca factor,” that sets it apart from most other Caribbean
destinations, or possible destinations.[1]
It is unique because of the great influence the large size, and relatively high
socioeconomic class status, of its African American population has had on
shaping the city. Atlanta is home to the second largest black population behind
New York, as of 2010, pushing Chicago out of its long-standing position among
US metros with the largest black populations. Though Afro-Caribbeans in Atlanta
are very likely included in the US Census count of Atlanta’s black population,
many Afro-Caribbeans in this study reported that the city’s rapidly growing
Caribbean community didn’t influence their decision to migrate there. The confluence
of factors that make Atlanta a black mecca is very important because there are
plenty of places, especially in the South, such as Baltimore, Charlotte, or
Houston, with a large black population that don’t necessarily have the number
of middle class blacks or the concentration of black power that Atlanta has. As a black mecca,
Atlanta is viewed as offering black people many more opportunities for success
and upward mobility than other cities.
Jefferson, a fifty-six year old
transplant from Dominica, described how Atlanta’s status as a black mecca very
much played a part in his decision to move to Atlanta from Hartford,
Connecticut in 1989. He thought that the city was particularly attractive after
he read about how it came into prominence through a succession of black mayors
and government officials. Karen, a second-generation Kittian immigrant in her
thirties who relocated to Atlanta from Los Angeles in 2002, described her
desire to live in a black mecca. She told me that it was important for her to
be in a community of successful black Americans, who were professionals,
government workers, and entrepreneurs, and who were motivated and making
changes in the world, who were motivated, and who were entrepreneurs, and not
in a place where blacks were struggling and just getting by. She felt that
being in an atmosphere where blacks were successful was critical for her to
progress.
For many Afro-Caribbeans in Atlanta, the city’s large black
population greatly influenced their decision to move there. Terri, a Jamaican-born
migrant in her early thirties who relocated to Atlanta from New Orleans in
2001, described how the city’s large black community was very important in her
decision to move to Atlanta. She told me that it was important to her to be
around “her people.” In fact, several Afro-Caribbeans in this study reported
that prior to their move they didn’t know that there was a Caribbean community
in Atlanta but they knew about its large black population. Alana, a New
York-born transplant of Barbadian descent in her mid-thirties who moved to
Atlanta from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, told me that the Caribbean community
in Atlanta played no role in her decision to move there but that the city’s
large black population played a major role. She explained that it was important
to her to be someplace where she felt comfortable. She wanted to be around
black people (though not too many) and liked that in Atlanta she was able to
see people that looked like her. Alana’s feelings were reiterated by other
Afro-Caribbeans in Atlanta that I interviewed. They felt it was important to
live in a city with a large number of black people, where they might see other
black faces daily, and they saw Atlanta as place, unlike many of the new
immigrant destinations in the US, that provided them with this particular
experience.
When migrants compared it to other cities
that they lived in, Atlanta’s black mecca factor became most evident. When I
asked Terri, a Jamaican-born, New York-raised migrant in her thirties, how
Atlanta compared to other places that she lived, for example, New Orleans,
which was the last city that she lived in prior to moving to Atlanta, she
stated: “New Orleans and Atlanta are very different. New Orleans is missing the
large black professional community that Atlanta has. I felt that a young 20s
professional class didn’t exist in New Orleans…That was one of the reasons I
knew I wouldn’t stay in New Orleans due to the lack of [a black] professional
class.” For Afro-Caribbeans that moved to Atlanta, many of whom were mostly
middle class and professionals, it was important to them that they live in a
city where they weren’t one of a few black professionals there, but one of many.
They felt Atlanta offered them that an environment where black professionals
thrived and where Afro-Caribbean professionals could thrive and grow. Simon, a
Trinidadian transplant to Atlanta in his late thirties, summed up best how this
notion of Atlanta’s status as a black mecca could impact positively
Afro-Caribbeans participating in the migration there. He stated: “you almost
felt like you were supposed to succeed when you came here because the
atmosphere was just so overwhelming in a positive way for black people. So it
was very motivating and very rewarding to be here.”
In Atlanta, Afro-Caribbeans
tend to settle mostly in suburban areas where African Americans are the
dominant group rather than areas where whites predominate. The majority
of the people who live within the Atlanta city limits are racially black,
making up 54% of the city inhabitants 2010, as opposed to whites, who make up
38%. The region’s legacy of
racially segregated growth has had an impact on the residential patterns of
immigrant newcomers in Atlanta. “Immigrants appear to be making inroads in the
northern part of the metro area, which has traditionally been the whiter part
of the racially divided region, and are less established in historically
African American neighborhoods” (Singer 2008: 18). According to the work of
historian Mary Odem, “there is very little foreign-born settlement in
areas with the highest concentrations of African American residents, mainly in
south Fulton County, including southwestern Atlanta, and southern DeKalb
County, where African American communities compose more than three-fourths of the
population” (2008: 119).
The findings of Odem’s research, and of most research on immigration to
Atlanta, are based mostly on the experiences and residential patterns of
Mexicans immigrants. In contrast, these
settlement patterns do not hold true for black immigrants. Previous research has shown that
Afro-Caribbeans tend to live in predominantly black neighborhoods (Tedrow and
Crowder 2001).
Afro-Caribbean immigrants report migrating
to Atlanta for a variety of reasons, including school, warmer climate, better quality
of life, and better opportunities for homeownership and employment; however,
these factors alone do not account for what is drawing Afro-Caribbeans
specifically to Atlanta, and not to other cities with similar characteristics, such
as Charlotte, Phoenix, or Portland (Singer 2008). Though there are warm
climates, low housing costs, jobs, and top universities in other cities in the
US, all in all, the most salient theme running throughout the migration stories
of Afro-Caribbeans for moving specifically to Atlanta is race. Afro-Caribbeans
are attracted to the possibilities that the city offers, namely the
possibilities that it offers for black people to live well and to do well,
something they feel that they wouldn’t be as likely to do in the places that
they left behind.
[1]
Washington, D.C. is another
destination that possesses the black mecca factor, in that has a majority black
population (and black political leaders) and nearby suburbs that are home to a
flourishing African American middle class. Like Atlanta, Washington, D.C. is a
top destination for black migrants in the US and has a large and growing
Afro-Caribbean (and African) immigrant population. In fact, several
Afro-Caribbeans in this study mentioned that they considered moving to the D.C.
area before they moved to Atlanta.
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