A Little NYC in Atlanta

For transplanted Afro-Caribbeans in Atlanta, their experiences in living in another city complicate and influence their community development. In the case of those who moved from New York, it is possible to migrate to Atlanta and to live around and socialize mainly with other Afro-Caribbean New Yorkers. When I moved to Atlanta, nearly all of the people I knew or met in the city were New York transplants. I met very few native residents of Atlanta during the year I lived in the southern city. New York-origin Afro-Caribbean migrants have seemingly transplanted their Caribbean New York social circles and lifestyles to Atlanta. They continue to attend parties and events with mostly other Caribbean New Yorkers and live in areas with others from their old New York neighborhoods. For Afro-Caribbean newcomers from New York, Atlanta can seem like a suburb of the New York tri-state area because of the large number of people who have migrated to the city from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In fact, several migrants described Atlanta as “Little New York.” Because of the active nightlife and the many opportunities to socialize with New Yorkers in the city, Atlanta has become like, as one migrant described it, “a New York away from New York.” It is quite possible to attend parties, clubs, and events in Atlanta hosted by an Afro-Caribbean migrant and find the majority of the partygoers are Caribbean New Yorkers.

The idea of Atlanta being “New York away from New York” or a Little New York influenced several of my New York-origin respondents’ decisions to move to the southern city. Karen, a New York-born transplant of Kittian descent in her early thirties who moved to the southern city from Los Angeles in 2002, told me: “I knew Atlanta would be a smarter choice for me because of all of the African Americans or Caribbean people who have migrated down here, it makes it sort of like a mini-New York.” For some of the New York-origin Afro-Caribbean migrants in this study, Atlanta being a Little New York helped with their resettlement process. When I interviewed Kerry, a migrant of Trinidadian descent in her late thirties, in the fall of 2009 in a Borders Bookstore near her home in Cobb County, she explained how Atlanta being a Little New York eased the transition to her new life in the southern city:

I actually moved to Atlanta in 1994 and I used to visit a lot before I moved here. So when I came, I liked it and a lot of my friends went to school at the AUC. So I would visit them and I thought that I could do this because it’s like New York away from New York. They were from New York too. I came down here to visit a lot and I ended up getting a promotion at my job in 1994 which is why I moved then. I was planning to move in 1996 but ended up moving two years early because it was easy. I just had to pack my bags and head here. I already had the job waiting since I was already with the company. So it was a seamless transition for me to make the move.

Whether or not other Afro-Caribbean migrants (not from New York) view Atlanta as a Little New York or recognize that there is a growing Caribbean New York community in Atlanta is unclear. The only migrants in this study to refer to Atlanta as a Little New York were migrants from New York. What is clear, however, is the importance of New York as a place and social and cultural center of the Caribbean diaspora (Olwig 2001). A large number of the Afro-Caribbean migrants that I interviewed for this study (13 out of 33) were connected to New York in some way—they either were born there or lived there for a significant amount of time (at least a decade) before they moved to Atlanta. Even after they move out and away from the city, New York continues to be central point for these Afro-Caribbean migrants in Atlanta. It makes it seem like New Yorker is an ethnicity that Afro-Caribbeans migrants are bringing with them to Atlanta and interchanging with their racial and ethnic identities. This point is significant, because it highlights a major difference between New York-origin Afro-Caribbean migrants and those from other places. As I discussed in the previous section, most of Afro-Caribbean migrants from New York who live in Atlanta still maintain their social and cultural ties to New York by not only socializing mostly with other Afro-Caribbean New Yorkers in Atlanta, but also traveling back to the city several times a year to maintain their family and friends still living there, to shop, and attend social events (e.g., birthdays, baptisms, funerals, and holidays) and cultural events (e.g., carnival). Interestingly, despite the length of time they have lived in Atlanta, and their claims of being happy with their life in Atlanta and having no plans to move back to New York (or anywhere in the future), Afro-Caribbean migrants from New York who live in Atlanta still maintain an identity as Caribbean New Yorkers.

Though sticking to their old communities may create a barrier in between the black immigrant community and those in the larger African American community, it has been helpful for developing a community among the Afro-Caribbeans in Atlanta, since so many have moved to the area from New York. Being among other Caribbean New Yorkers in Atlanta creates a feeling of home and familiarity for migrants, making the transition to life in Atlanta easier.