Caribbean Connections

Afro-Caribbean’s migration experience is not a simple story of leaving one country for good and settling in another, abandoning their former lives. Most Afro-Caribbean immigrants engage in various kinds of transnational activities that connect them to their countries of origin (Olwig 2007; Basch 2001; Vickerman 2002; Sutton 1992). Developments in communication and cheap flights have greatly facilitated their ability to sustain strong relationships with families and friends who live thousands of miles away. Even as they become incorporated into the local society, they stay closely connected to families and friends in the Caribbean through telephone communication, regular remittances to family members, and involvement in events in their former communities. Such connections help them to deal with emotional and material challenges of living in a new place and remain embedded in their former communities at the same time that they develop new networks in their new home. As a result, migrants are able to form a sense of belonging to multiple communities. Through their ties to the cities that they migrated from, they do not have to rely completely on the services, events, and goods available in Atlanta to maintain their Caribbean identity and cultural practices and traditions.

Fairly cheap airfares and Atlanta's major international airport--the busiest airport in the country—makes it easier for Afro-Caribbean migrants to visit “home” (i.e., the Caribbean and/or the cities that they left) with great frequency and to go back for family emergency, special celebrations, leisure, or to get things they need, such as food, music, or clothes that they can’t find easily in Atlanta. As a hub for Air Tran and Delta, airlines that offer daily flights to New York at rates around $200, Atlanta’s airport  makes it easy for migrants to travel between the two cities. Many migrants told me that they would visit the Caribbean a few times a year and get the Caribbean-style products they desired for themselves and bring them back to Atlanta; and if they could not go, they would have family members ship the products to them. (Although the population and the availability of Caribbean products in Atlanta have grown, there are some products that are easier and cheaper to get from their former communities, especially traditional Caribbean immigrant destinations like New York and Miami.) Being able to easily go back to their former communities shapes their experience of living in Atlanta. Many Afro-Caribbeans I interviewed told me that connections to their “old” lives greatly influenced their feelings of satisfaction with their new lives in Atlanta. As they travel between Atlanta and their former communities, Afro-Caribbean migrants are forming connections between Atlanta and other major cities, including New York, Miami, Boston, and other places they migrated from.