For
a number of migrants, New York is a first stop before they move to other parts
of the US. Step migration—a migration process that typically involves a migrant
entering through a traditional gateway city (e.g., New York) and then moving to
other cities—appears to be the dominant migration pattern for Afro-Caribbeans living
outside New York.
The
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale metro area has the second largest concentration of
Afro-Caribbeans. Many Afro-Caribbeans, largely led by those who moved there
after retiring, have settled in southern Florida, with its warm weather and
proximity to the Caribbean region. It makes Miami a very Caribbean-dominated
cultural landscape. It is home to second largest Caribbean Carnivals in the US
that attracts many Afro-Caribbeans from other US cities and the Caribbean. Miami’s
large Cuban population provides a very different context than New York, where
not one immigrant group dominates (Foner 2001; Kasinitz, Battle, and Miyares
2001). Because of their large population size, great political power, and impressive
economic success, southern Florida’s Cubans play a significant role in the
incorporation of Miami’s Afro-Caribbeans and other ethnic groups (Foner 2005). In
2000, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area was home to 303,731 Afro-Caribbeans, who
made up 34.4% and 43.4% of the black populations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale,
respectively (See Table 1). Studies of southern Florida show that
Afro-Caribbeans have higher median household incomes than other southern
Florida residents and a higher level of homeownership than their New York
counterparts (Kasinitz, Battle, and Miyares 2001; Logan 2007). Having lower
housing costs and a lower cost of living than New York, southern Florida offers
Afro-Caribbeans more opportunities for homeownership than New York. There is
not a dominant Caribbean neighborhood like Central Brooklyn in New York but
there are some residential clusters north of downtown Miami (Kasinitz, Battle,
and Miyares 2001).
Afro-Caribbeans
outside New York offer yet more variations on the Caribbean immigrant experience
in the US (Hintzen 2001; Palmer 1995; Bashi 2007; Olwig 2007; Foner 2005;
Johnson 2006; Logan 2007). This can be seen in the Afro-Caribbean community in
California. Percy Hintzen’s West Indian
in the West (2001) provides one of the few detailed accounts of
Afro-Caribbeans outside of New York. The Afro-Caribbean community in the San
Francisco Bay Area is relatively small, with only about 9,000 in 1990 (when he
did his study). Afro-Caribbeans are residentially dispersed throughout the Bay
Area, with no distinct Caribbean ethnic neighborhood enclaves. Many of the
Afro-Caribbeans in the Bay Area moved there to attend school, to join family,
or because they were transferred by their employers or relocated for a job
opportunity, or because they stayed after being assigned to one of California’s
many military bases. Afro-Caribbeans in the Bay Area were mostly middle to
upper-middle class, unlike their counterparts in New York. According to Hintzen, the large number of
low-skilled Latino and Asian immigrants in the area has diminished the job
opportunities for low-skilled or unskilled Afro-Caribbeans and likely
discouraged their migration to the region. Hintzen (2001) found that
Afro-Caribbeans in the Bay Area have constructed an ethnic identity that
revolves around the notion of success and foreignness, exploiting exotic images
of the Caribbean and the myth of them as a model minority, in order to
distinguish themselves from the region’s African American population and large Hispanic
and Asian populations. Due to the small size and residential dispersion of the
Caribbean immigrant community, Afro-Caribbeans’ relations with African
Americans are largely class-based, with them distancing themselves from poor
African Americans and associating with middle class and professional African
Americans in order to access “the social, political, and occupational networks
of the African American middle and professional classes” (Hintzen 2001: 92). Another detailed account of an
Afro-Caribbean community in California is Christine Ho (1991)’s study of
Afro-Trinidadian migration to Los Angeles. Like their counterparts in the San
Francisco Bay Area, the Afro-Trinidadians in Los Angeles moved to the region
from other US cities, mostly New York. Their experiences in their former
communities greatly influenced their experiences, decisions, and community
formations in Los Angeles. For example, many of the Afro-Trinidadians in her
study reported being attracted to Los Angeles because they viewed it as a
better place to raise kids than New York.
The Afro-Caribbean community in Washington, D.C. offers yet another
variation in the Caribbean immigrant experience in the US. Ransford Palmer’s
(1995) book Pilgrims From the Sun is
one of the few scholarly attempts to document the experiences of
Afro-Caribbeans in Washington, D.C. With a relatively small Afro-Caribbean
population (about 49,000 according to the 2000 US Census)[1],
the D.C. area is home to a large population of Afro-Caribbean college graduates
and professionals. Howard University, one of America’s historically black
colleges and universities (HBCUs), is largely responsible for the district’s
large population of Afro-Caribbean professionals, as many of those who
graduated from the university remained in the area (includes parts of Virginia
and Maryland). They are no distinct Caribbean ethnic neighborhoods. Afro-Caribbeans
are dispersed geographically throughout the DC area and live mostly in African American
neighborhoods (Palmer 1995). “In moving to Washington, West Indians come to a
city with a majority black population (and black political leaders) and nearby suburbs
that are home to a flourishing African American middle class ” (Foner 2005:
150). The Washington D.C. area has a large and diverse black population, having
substantial African American, African, and Afro-Caribbean communities. Washington
D.C. is also home to a large African immigrant population, who along with
Afro-Caribbeans create a significant black immigrant presence in the area—making
up 9.8% of the DC metro area’s total black population in 2000 (Logan 2007).
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