The Formation Of Caribbean Societies And Their Impact On North America

Historical Context

Discuss about the Post-neoliberalism in the Americas.

The formation of Caribbean societies and their impact on North America

The Caribbean area is made up of the islands ranging from Trinidad, Aruba, and Margarita among others of the South Coast of Venezuela, to Jamaica, Hispaniola, North Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The primary categories include the Lesser Antilles, the four Greater Antilles, and Tobago and Trinidad.

The present Caribbean societies are due to the results of almost five centuries of European colonial policies. First as colonies, then as plantation settlements, these communities were manipulated by force to meet the planned, political, and commercial objectives of imperialist nations. More importantly, their populations were imported in adherence to the decisions made elsewhere, more so to sustain or alter the association of labor supply to land (Niehoff, 2017).

In 1492 Columbus sailed to North America and the world transformations are attributed to his project. More specifically, Columbus’s voyage has been emphasized by the North Americans because it led to the settlement in their continent. However, this assertion fails to recognize that the major axis of colonial expansion was geared towards the south because the indigenous populations there were inadequately equipped with weaponry to prevent sufficiently prevent the attackers and were not resistant to the European diseases which accompanied them. Columbus mistaken on the geographic identified the native populations as “Indians” and referred to some as honorable brutes and others as murderous cannibals, thus vindicating the involvement of Europeans, Christians change, enslavement, and colonization (Niehoff, 2017).

The Caribbean was advantaged regarding the quality of soils, climate and geographical location which also promoted the growth of industrialization in the Western countries. Columbus transported the first sugar cane from Spanish Islands to the Caribbean in his second trip of 1943. He was accompanied by slaves from Africa and Spain. Sugar was first planted in the Dominican Republic and then exported back to Europe in the 1500s. This facilitated fast obliteration of the native people, then laborers from Africa were imported as slaves immediately after the initial plantation of the sugarcanes. This, therefore, cleared the way for the propagation of the extensive and long-term plantation complex and the fast revolution of tastes and preferences of Europe.

At least six European powers joined the scramble and fought against each other over the wealth acquired from the colonized areas. Caribbean islands were exchanged as peace treaties to seal negotiations after European Wars. Africans were transported as slaves to America, and 40% to the Caribbean alongside agricultural products. “Races” were developed for the enslavement process and plantation slavery of Africans by Americans. As a result, the Africans and their descendants became “black” while the Europeans and their descendants were termed as “white.” This is because of the development of a differential value with regard to the physical characteristics. Furthermore, this led to the implication of ethnicity in slave revolts between the European colonists and the Africans, Spanish and French, British or the Dutch, etc. overall the valorisation of the European culture and “whiteness” in addition to the depreciation of the Caribbean roots was common in the Caribbean and still is today.

The Influence of European Colonial Policies

The shift from slavery to freedom led to a period of adjustment for the slaves. However, most of the ex-slaves went on to work on the plantations but independently as others changed to peasants. In order to save their returns by reducing the earnings of the ex-slaves, the planters and the colonial countries introduced the indentured workers from the whole world, and they stayed in slavery conditions in the Caribbean. The present state in North America of ethnicity, class competition and wide variation in wealth can equally be seen in the Caribbean society and are as a result of Caribbeanzation. Additionally, the Caribbean culture, festivals, and music have impacted the way music, street parades and festivals are done in North America countries.

The Caribbean people have also been identified for their movement, and this can be attributed to the movements during slavery. The Caribbean sojourns were often perceived by planters and colonial administrators as temporal. Enslaved Africans were forcibly taken from their motherlands and sold more often because they were regarded as chattel. Thus, they were transported from one plantation to the next and from one island to the other. The indentured laborers came with the mindset of going back, but only a few of them did.

At the onset of freedom and end of slavery, the Caribbean people migrated around the region and over in the search for any new and available opening. The end of the Haitian Revolution led to the escape of the white planters and their slaves to Louisiana and Cuba. The Panama railroad was then worked on by the West Indians in the 1850s. In the eighteen hundreds, the French tried to construct the Panama Canal with the involvement of over 50,000 workers majority of whom were Jamaicans, whereas the Cuban cigar laborers moved with their construction plants to Key West and Tampa in Florida.

Approximately 150,000 Caribbeans moved to Central America at the start of the twentieth century to work on the Panama Canal and fruit industries in the U.S. similarly, other thousands of workers migrated to Cuba and the Dominican Republic from Jamaica, Haiti, and the Leeward islands to cut cane, with most of them undergoing nativistic aggression. Some laborers moved to Curacao, Aruba, and Venezuela to work in the oil industry. These migrations led to the formation of large Caribbean communities in New York, Boston, and Miami. At the end of World War II, Caribbeans settled in Paris and Amsterdam with most of the West Indians being recruited to work in the UK.

The Development of Plantation Slavery

The beginning of most of the Caribbean political leaders and scholars was in overseas.  Jose Marti of Cuba lived in New York while he labored for the independence of this island, Marcus Garvey of Jamaica began and managed the Universal Negro Improvement Association while in Harlem. Trinidadian Marxist scholar and James mostly operated from London.

Overall, the migration of the Caribbean community into the United States has caused a significant impact on both the Caribbean and the American Society. The Caribbean society has significantly been transformed by the American society with respect to the quality of education, employment, and income, health, family patterns among others. On the other hand, the Caribbean immigrants have affected the American society by increasing and at the same time blurring the racial ethnicity, religious diversity, and increased intergroup contact.

The initial generation of Caribbean immigrants had low attainments with regard to education compared to the subsequent generations who education quality and level has significantly improved. This is true because the children of the immigrants progress at a higher level than their patents because they are brought up under American education system. However, the educational attainments of the Caribbean immigrants is lower compared to the foreign and native-born populations.

Due to the favorable laws on the immigrants, Caribbean are likely to get employment in North America. This employment advantage is expected to increase their earnings and general quality of life. There is also increased rate of integration between the Asian and non-Hispanic white population. It is also observable that the income of the foreign-born workers increases with the time of stay in North America compared with the native-born workers. However, these patterns are still determined by racial and ethnic stratification.

The occupational distribution among the Caribbean immigrants has also transformed with time due to improvement in integration. The first generation Caribbean immigrants could only take specific professional positions with low earnings. However, the children of the second generation immigrants have occupied different occupations just like the Americans. For example the immigrant Caribbean from Jamaica, Tobago and Trinidad have recorded the highest average household incomes and low poverty rates due to better occupations and thus payments. This explains the reasons for the representation of Caribbeans across the occupational spectrum which also indicates improved integration. Despite the better integration of the Caribbean immigration into the job sector, their overall poverty level is still higher than those of the native-born even they work for longer hours (Macdonald & Ruckert, 2009).    

Migration Patterns

The migration of the Caribbean to North America has also led to residential integration with the native whites being more dispersed across cities and communities and most of the immigrants being segregated from the overall population. This has been attributed to the income levels and type of occupation and length of stay. Most of the new entrants prefer to reside with other Caribbeans and thus leading to high residential segregation from the native whites. Therefore, race plays a substantial role in the discrimination against Asians being the least segregated in metropolitan regions, then Hispanics and lastly blacks (Macdonald & Ruckert, 2009).   

The migration of the Caribbeans into North America has also caused language diversity with most of the Caribbean speaking English as their second language. Over 50%of the current foreign-born Caribbeans are fluent English speakers. However, the proficiency varies according to region and country of origin. Most of the second generation of Caribbean immigrants have lost their ancestral language and are speaking English as their first language.

It is also significant to note that the migration of the Caribbeans to North America has also transformed the culture of North America in different ways. 17% of the U.S population consists of the Hispanic population with only 62% non-Hispanic, 6%. This is also due to high birth rates. This integration has reduced the all-white all-black spaces. Despite this integration, racial segregation is still predominant across the country with the blacks being the most segregated from the whites, then the Hispanics, Asians, and non-Hispanics.

The Caribbean migration has also brought new religious diversity in North America with most of the immigrants being Christians. The North American population today has Muslims, Hindus among others. The Caribbeans have also influenced the shifting patterns of marriage and intimate relationships between different ethnicities and races. Out of every seven new unions, there is one that is interracial or interethnic. This is because of the blurring of the social and cultural boundaries that were clearly defined in the past. The rise of the size of the mixed-race American is attributed mainly to these intermarriages. The integration of Caribbeans and their descendants is the primary contributor to caribbeanization of North America. With time the distinctive features of Americans will become much more blurred and the Caribbeans are becoming more of Americans through the integration of the neighborhoods, education institutions, and workplaces and into the families (Macdonald & Ruckert, 2009).    

Conclusion

Caribbeanizaton of North America has progressively been taking place right from the time of colonization. The Caribbeans were imported as cheap labor during the colonial period, but after they gained freedom from slavery and of movement, they migrated across the globe in search of better opportunities. Those that got green pastures called for others, and with time their population and influence has continued to expand to the extent that their culture is almost merging with that of Americans.

References

Macdonald, L., & Ruckert, A. (Eds.). (2009). Post-neoliberalism in the Americas. Springer.

Niehoff, A. H. (2017). Caribbean transformations. Routledge.