We have already discussed the various push and pull factors that tie the Caribbean and the United States together when discussing emigration and immigration. Economic incentives are among the most powerful incentives around; namely due to the prestige that inhabiting a higher economic strata can bring not only the individual, but the family and, by proxy, the community. Advances with regards to transportation, communication and remittence-sending (is there a business for this?) have allowed for immigrants across the Caribbean to maintain close connections with their family back home. Transnationalism has forever changed the dynamic of immigration, people are forming networks across continents that further strengthens the sense of community between all ex-patriots. As a little aside I had no idea people from the Caribbean settled in Canada, the temperature difference seems like it’d be a bit insane.
Sad to say, immigrants from the West Indies haven’t had an easy ride coming to America. People of a dark complexion tend to get lumped together into one group even though there might not be anything linking two people together besides an abundance of melanin. To elucidate my point, as soon as white people heard that black people would soon be moving into the area they cut and ran because of the notion that as soon as the darker people moved in the value of their property would drop. This is called white flight and the exodus of white people into the suburbs paved the way for more and more people of West Indies ancestry to fill the now vacated houses. Unfortunately for our migrant friends, big banks don’t like to let money flow into these recently immigrant filled areas; this exclusionary practice is known as redlining. People from the West Indies were generally treated the same way American blacks were/are treated; poorly.
Moving on to the concept of “trust networks”, my personal opinion is that it may be beneficial in the short term but the reliance of the family upon the migrant will eventually prove detrimental. Having to balance carving out a niche for yourself while simultaneously supporting a family can’t be easy. Remittences are a risky business, especially when one can’t keep an eye on what the family might be doing with this money. I’m aware of how terrible this sounds but I’m not about to send my hard earned fancy American money back home without some sort of guarantee that it’s going to some worthy purpose. This might be because I’m a pragmatist but my general point remains, there is no way to tell what the people back home are doing with the money unless you go back there yourself.
This concept of having and maintaining a trust network was new for me. I have family that still lives in Italy but no one here sends anything back, the people there seem to be doing alright. They used to send back massive hunks of cheese seemingly for no reason, not like a need a reason to receive fancy cheese or anything.
