The first article that we had to read this week was Transnationalism as a Gendered Process by Christine Ho. In this paper, Ho discusses the role of women in the transmigration phenomenon. Caribbean women, though they are often portrayed as strong, independent and the heads of their households, they are often times still dominated by men. The women are merely forced into these positions by men. Caribbean men tend not to integrate into the family unit, leaving the women to take care of the children and the household. This creates a matrifocal but not matriarchal societal structure. That is to say that the women are central to the family and hold a lot of influence but they are not the dominant individuals in the family structure.
The connection that women have with other women is very important. Often times it is with other female kin or daughters. It is also explained how much these Caribbean women depend on men, despite their perceived independence. Most of the jobs in which they are employed are low-wage jobs where they serve men. In this sense, women’s movement into the workforce locks women in the lower class and into the servitude of men. They are also expected to depend on several men in their lives. They must depend on lovers, sons, and husbands for primary income and resources since women have been delegated to the role of supplementary wage earners within the family.
The second article we read this week was “Black like Who?” Afro-Caribbean Immigrants, African Americans, and the Politics of Group Identity by Reuel Rogers. Rogers looks at the differences and the relationship between native-born African Americans and foreign-born Caribbean’s within the black community of the United States. Something that I found very interesting is the idea that class comes before race. As the black population grows, parts of it move up into the middle class and other parts stay in the lower class. As blacks enter a more comfortable life in the middle class, they tend to associate less with their “blackness” and black political movements. This shows how important class is and how it can overpower the influence of race.
Both the native-born and foreign-born blacks held strong views on their race, culture and identity. Many of the Afro-Caribbean’s hold strong ties to their home country. Most identify as black in a similar way to the native-born African Americans. The difference is that the Afro-Caribbean’s accept their home country as their primary identity and hold that identity with pride. This is because of the transnational networks that are created during transnational migration, since they strengthen and solidify the connections to their home country. They also interact with other Caribbean islanders and African Americans so they develop a far more pluralist and diverse identity.
The last article we read this week was Growing Up West Indian and African American, Gender and Class Differences in the Second Generation by Mary C. Waters. In this article, Waters studies the way in which immigrants to the United States adapt to their new environment and follow the changes based on generation. The study included West Indian immigrants to New York City and their teenage children to learn more about this topic.
First generation immigrants from the Caribbean, as discussed in “Black like Who?” Afro-Caribbean Immigrants, African Americans, and the Politics of Group Identity by Reuel Rogers, identify more with their Caribbean country of origin. For their children it is not so simple. Often times they are more Americanized and have lost certain traits like an accent that make them recognizable as Afro-Caribbean’s so they are often misidentified as native-born African Americans. This is a huge difference in the experience and perception of the first and second generation. Again another large factor is class and growing up in such a diverse city like New York, I have witnessed this. Children growing up in poorer neighborhoods are more likely to reject their ethnic identity while children in middle class neighborhoods are more likely to embrace their ethnic identity.
It is interesting to me how the three paths of identity development were laid out. The three types include those who identify as American, ethnic American, or as an immigrant. It is strange to think that people with similar familiar background of transnational migration could arrive at such a wide spectrum of identities for themselves. I think that this shows that class is a huge factor in deciding one’s identity, more than ethic or racial factors. Class even has the power to influence the perception of the other two, ethnicity and race. This makes the study of political-economic factors exceedingly important in understanding identity of immigrants and their children.
