Though
the vast majority of Afro-Caribbeans in the US live in New York City, their
experiences and characteristics (e.g., education, job, income, class do not
apply to Afro-Caribbeans who live elsewhere (Foner 2005). “Each urban
destination is distinct in important ways, reflecting, among other things, the
types of West Indian migrants who move there and the particular social and
political context that greets them on arrival” (Foner 2005: 147). Washington D.C.,
provides a distinct Caribbean migrant experience, for example, due its high
share of Afro-Caribbean professionals and college graduates and large,
ethnically diverse black population, including a flourishing black middle class
and black suburban community. San Francisco, on the other hand, provides a
different experience for Caribbean migrants due the origin of its small but
mostly middle class Afro-Caribbean community—the majority having moved to the
area from another US city rather than from the Caribbean directly—and its large
Asian and Latino immigrant communities. The experiences
of Afro-Caribbeans in other cities underscore the important ways that “place
matters,” as Nancy Foner (2005) argues, in the Caribbean migrant experience and
sets the stage for a discussion of the distinctiveness of Atlanta as a
destination for Caribbean migration. What makes Atlanta different from other
Caribbean immigrant destinations—i.e., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
and Miami?
What Makes Atlanta a Unique Caribbean
Immigrant Destination?
A host of features make Atlanta unique as a Caribbean immigrant
destination. Atlanta experienced the largest growth in Afro-Caribbean
population in the US. Between 1990 and 2000, the Afro-Caribbean population in
Atlanta grew 323.3 percent—eight times the growth of the Afro-Caribbean
population in New York City (at 40.6 percent) (See Table 1). Although they only
make up 1.8% of the population in metro Atlanta, their growth is immense (US
Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2010). Jamaicans (at 36,703) and
Haitians (15,595) have been driving most of the growth in the area, according
to the 2005-2009 American Community Survey. Jamaicans alone were the fourth
largest immigrant group in Atlanta in 2005 (Odem 2008).[1] By 2010,
according to the American Community Survey estimates, about 7% of the Atlanta
area’s black population was foreign-born, and roughly 5% of the southern
metropolis’ black residents were of West Indian ancestry. If their numbers
continue to grow as quickly as they have in the past two decades (from 2.9% to
5% of the Atlanta black population in 1990 and 2010, respectively),
Afro-Caribbeans may become a numerically significant part of the city’s black
population in the next two decades. The dense concentration of Afro-Caribbeans
in certain areas of Atlanta has created neighborhoods with a distinct Caribbean
mark. A few Afro-Caribbeans have gained office in some of these Caribbean-dense
areas, which are mostly in the surrounding Atlanta suburbs, but they have not
gained any major political power in the city of Atlanta and still depend on
African American political representation to address the interests of the
growing Caribbean community. How the presence of a growing Afro-Caribbean
population affects black politics in Atlanta in the next two decades is not yet
known and requires future study.
Besides experiencing an influx of Afro-Caribbean migrants, Atlanta
has experienced significant demographic changes since the 1990s. Atlanta is one
of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country (Frey 2005; Frey
2010b). Metro Atlanta’s population grew 38.4 percent between 1990 and 2000,
making it the eighth fastest growing metropolitan area in the US (Frey 2010b). During
the past few decades, many migrants from within the US and from abroad flocked
to Atlanta as the metropolis' economy rapidly expanded with the acquisition of
major national and multinational corporations. Domestic migration from other US
cities drove the population growth in the Atlanta between 1995 and 2000, with
the southern city gaining 246,444 domestic migrants (the highest gains from
domestic migration among US metros) (Frey 2005). International migration also
contributed significantly to the southern metropolis’ growth since the 1990s,
with the arrival of 162,972 immigrants between 1995 and 2000 (Frey 2003).
Immigration during the 1990s has also transformed Atlanta from a
mostly bi-racial society consisting of whites and African Americans to one of
the most diverse metros in the South (Hansen 2005). Both the black and white
populations of Atlanta increased between 1990 and 2000 from 742,678 to
1,999,428 and 2,101, 441 to
2,460,740, respectively (See Table 3). But, the largest increases were of the
Asian and Hispanic populations in the Atlanta area with 51,289 to 155,117 and
58, 215 to 268,541 between 1990 and 2000, respectively (See Table 3). The
diversity of the population acts as an unspoken challenge to the black-white
binary that typically frames how people see the South. The composition, and
extraordinary diversity, of immigrant streams to Atlanta have created a racial
and ethnic order that is unlike traditional immigrant gateway cities (i.e., Los
Angeles, New York, Miami, or Chicago). The movement of immigrant newcomers from
Latin America, Asia, and Africa to Atlanta—a place that had little previous
history of immigration prior to 1990 —has had a significant impact on the
southern city. Like most of the South, Atlanta did not attract large numbers of
immigrants during the mass immigration era between 1880 and 1920. At the turn
of the 20th century, Atlanta had a small immigrant community of
Jews, Greeks, and Chinese that comprised less than 4 percent of its population
(Adelman and Jaret 2010). Atlanta emerged as a major immigrant destination in
the 1990s, long after major immigrant destinations such as New York, Chicago,
and Boston. “In contrast to more established central-city destinations and
patterns of settlement, trends in 21st-century gateways constitute a new
context for the social, economic, and political incorporation of immigrants.
All of these places are confronting fast-paced change that has wide-reaching
effects on neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and local public coffers”
(Singer, Hardwick, and Brettell 2008: 1). Atlanta has received one of the
highest percentages of immigrants during the past few decades (Bump, Lowell, and
Petterson 2005; Hansen 2005; Odem 2008; Singer, Hardwick, and Brettell 2008). The
migration to Atlanta is characterized by its suburban settlement Atlanta is
distinguished from other new destinations, such as Phoenix or Charlotte, by the
size and diverse backgrounds of its immigrant population and its predominantly
suburban settlement (Singer, Hardrick, and Brettell 2008b). The city of Atlanta
is relatively small jurisdiction at the core of a sprawling metropolis where most
of Atlanta’s population resides. Migration to the area has mostly been
suburban. In 2005, 96 percent of metropolitan Atlanta's immigrant newcomers
lived outside the city, in the surrounding suburban areas (Singer, Hardwick,
and Brettell 2008).
[1]
Jamaicans
were the largest Caribbean group in Atlanta (at 36,073), according to the
2005-2009 American Community Survey.
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