Cultural Links

Inter Caribbean Migration: A History

by Wayne Jones

Few societies have been shaped by the uprootedness and movements of their people as those of the Caribbean, particularly the West Indians. There are records of planters migrating from one island to another with their slaves. But the massive movement occutred after slavery ended whereby West Indians began to show their abhorrence of the system of slavery-like conditions that existed even later. Subject to the chronic over-population, scarce resources, seclusion and limited opportunities to own propetty, many West Indians especially from the smaller islands and some from the larger ones had utilized immigration as a survival strategy and it had become an integral part of the life cycle.

In the immediate period after slavery ended, large numbers of East Indians, Portuguese, Chinese and African contract laborers were imported into the West Indies to replace those former African slaves who preferred to become - selfsustaining peasants working on their own rather than continue in plantation employment. While these new recruits were entering the Caribbean, West Indians were also moving within the islands and the mainland territories. As early as 1835 an estimated 157 immigrants arrived in British Guiana (now Guyana) from the islands of St. Kitts, Antigua, and Barbados. As early as the 1840's, the former slaves of St. Kitts were boarding sailboats for the dangerous journey to Trinidad. By the 1850's, Jamaicans were being recruited for labor in Panama and Costa Rica. This went alongside the movement for Jamaicans to Cuba after slavety ended there in 1866.

In British Guiana the Immigration Agent General listed a total of 40,656 immigrants who arrived mainly from Barbados by the year 1 892. Canal construction in Panama drew approximately 100,000 West Indian workers particularly from Jamaica and Barbados between 1881 and 1914. There were also significant movements of small islanders including Grenadians, St. Vincentians and St. Lucians to Trinidad. From the 1880's onwards a smaller amount of immigrants left the islands for Costa Rica, British Honduras and the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Due to this migration there later emerged predominantly Black English-speaking cities in Central Amenca like Limon in Costa Rica and Bluefields in Nicaragua.

Barbados and St. Vincent were hit by hurticane in September 1898. As a relief measure British Guiana declared its willingness to accept 500 laborers on the sugar estates. The offer was taken up by 375 Barbadians and 51 St. Vincentians. In British Guiana islanders had many options. Some worked for a while on the sugat plantations, then left and sought employment as attisans, domestics, tradesmen; etc. Others took - up lands in neatby established villages bought by the former British Guianese slaves, while many others made the journey to the hinterland in search of diamond and gold.

The Panamanian connection started with the Californian Gold Rush which motivated the construction of the transIsthmian railroad between 1850 and 1855. The labor fotce for this project was chiefly Jamaican and Barbadian. In 1880 Panama was again the focus of West Indian immigration when the French unsuccessfully attempted to build a sea-level canal. The United States successfully built the Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914. This was the period when large amounts of West Indians went to work in Panama. The 1939-45 war and the necessary works on the defenses of the canal attracted a new wave of West Indian immigrants.

There was the concept of "Panama Money" which evolved with the large numbers of West Indians who became relatively rich in Panama. This money was to some extent remitted to the homelands and helped, among other things, to pay the passages of those who wanted to leave Panama for greener pastures in North America. Henry Cameron, a Guyanese who was famous for his acquisition of "Panama Money" left Panama and settled in Harlem, New York. By the 1940's he had acquired large amounts of real estate. He also had an employment agency which attracted many newarrivals Guianese to New York. His home was also a haven for new arrivals. Many persons got wealthy in Panama. Some continued to settle in the Canal Zone area. Over the years there has been inter-island marriages. In New York, we witness young Panamanians of Barbadian and Jamaican background.

After experiencing the shock of arrival on new shores, the West Indian immigrants gradually merged with the host population. One Barbadian newspaper reported in 1940 that: "Barbadians are to be seen crying in the streets of British Guiana for their native isle." But after a while the crying was over and the Barbadians began to cook "cook-up rice" and "roti." Many Guyanese can trace their ancestry to some great grandfather from Barbados.

In the early part of this century there were some great movements to Trinidad, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Guyana. Then there was a heavy flow to Aruba and Curacao.

Many Montserratians, Grenadians, Antiguans and St. Lucians moved to work in Aruba and Curacao. The early Grenadian politicians acquired leadership skills while working in Aruba. Eric Gairy who dominated Grenadian politics for over two decades got his start in public lite as a trade unionist in the Aruba oil industry. The father of Maurice Bishop worked at the same refinery. Herbert Blaize who succeeded Maurice Bishop also did a stint in Aruba.

There were other significant movements to the U.S. Virgin Islands. There were shortages of labor on the islands and lhe neighboring Antigua and St. Kitts seized the opportunity. Many from the Windward Islands made the trek to the Virgin Islands. Other islanders went to Trinidad where they worked in the oilfields. From the 1 950's there were large Windward island populations in the Guyanese goldfield. By the 1970's the St. Lucian La Rose festival had been transported to Mahdia in Guyana's hinterland. Then hard times began to take hold in Guyana in the 1980's. Many islanders began leaving for their homelands. Nowadays there are in St. Lucia people who are known as "GuyLu." The "Guy-Lu" is an offspring of St. Lucian parents who were born in Guyana. The "Guy-Lu" acquired permanent status when he or she arrived in St. Lucia, his or her parents' homeland. So there has been a West Indian exodus from the troubled Guyana.

In recent years Guyanese have become pariahs of the Caribbean. Because of the hard times many are searching for better times in the West Indian islands of Antigua, Trinidad, Barbados and St. Lucia. For example, in St. Lucia, there are many Guyanese professionals atwork there. St. Lucia has no more than 16 secondary schools, and each secondary school has at least 12 Guyanese teachers who are mainly University of Guyana graduates. The hospitals in St. Lucia are staffed with many well-qualified Guyana nurses. This is the great turn-around. There are people from the Dominican Republic who are heading for Barbados and the Cayman Islands. Barbadians are returning home from the Virgin Islands and so on.

Accompanying inter Caribbean migration there has always been huge movements to North America and Britain Many contemporary migrants have used their adopted country as a means of acquiring money for the onward movement to North America and Britain. Bermuda and the Bahamas are now attracting migrants from other West Indian islands. There are movements in all directions in the Caribbean. West Indians have been interacting in a meaningful way in different places in the region over the decades.

As a consequence of interRegional migration there has evolved a pan-West Indian identity. People from the Leeward and Windward Islands learn much about their similarities while residing in Trinidad and Guyana. The Panama experience brought solidarity among the Jamaicans, Barbadians, and other islanders. Migration from the West Indian islands to the Dominican Republic in the 1930's brought similar solidarity. In Linden, Guyana, there was established a West Indian Association. The Association erected a meeting place popularly known as the Islander Hall where cultural and political activities were held. This was the beginning of Caribbean unity and the fostering of pan-West Indian identity. Marcus Garvey found it feasible to travel to Panama in the 1920's to address the problems of the Caribbean peoples.

This unity among Caribbean people in the early days was remarkable. In British Guiana many West Indian immigrants worked on the sugar plantations in the late 19th century. As I said earlier, some left the plantations and took up lands in the newly established vihages bought by the Guyanese creoles. When the planters attempted to retrieve the absconders they ran into difficulties because the process of differentiating between the local creoles and the islander was a complex one, given that they looked alike. And, moreover, the villagers were bent on luring permanent labor away from the plantations so that with its scarcity wages would increase. This was a great episode in inter-Regional cooperation.

There has been a lot of intra Regional travel during this century whereby some West Indians have been moving to and *om their homelands on a frequent basis. Returning migrants brought back not only savings but radical ideas that helped to fuel the riots which broke out throughout the West Indies in the late 1930's. This period is usually referred to as the watershed between the old and the new social order that began to emerge in the region. Being in Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Trinidad and Guyana, islanders noted the great polarity between the rich and the underprivileged and this helped stir up revolutionary ideas among them. In addition, the extensive labor union agitation was another factor. So when these islanders returned to their native lands, they brought these new ideas to confront the established political order.

While many looked to these new lands as home, many nevertheless were unsettled. Islanders remitted huge sums of money to their native isles. "Panama Money" and "B.G. Gold" were great incentives for intra-regional movement. The remittances have helped to improve the Caribbean economy. Many of the more ambitious migrants were able to save money and move on to the metropolis to improve their education.

So then, Caribbean immigration has not always been to the metropolitan center of the U.S.A., Britain, and Canada. There were a lot of local migrations going back to the early periods. West Indian have always been a moving people. Migration has become like a rite of passage for the average West Indian. These inter-Regional migrations laid the way for the take-off of many of the host economies as well as the emigrant territories and helped to strengthen the ever haunting concept known as Regional unity.