The family as model and metaphor in Caribbean migration to Britain

Abstract

Until recently Caribbean migration has largely been viewed as a movement of labour, an approach which tended to exclude or marginalise the importance of historical, cultural and social influences in migration and settlement. This article is based on research conducted by Harry Goulbourne and Mary Chamberlain and financed by the ESRC on the evolution of Caribbean families in Britain. It explores the role of the family in Caribbean migration, and the impact of migration on the family. It suggests that while individuals migrated, the wider family were implicated in the endeavour either at the point of departure or destination. In the process, family values of support, obligation and responsibility were reinforced and continue to be retained across the oceans, and the generations. Cheap communications and the move towards return provides further opportunity for family contacts to be replenished and with that fresh opportunities for cultural retention. The family therefore provides (and has done so historically) a model for migrant behaviour; this model however stresses the importance of siblings and kin peers who provide the basis of social networks and act as a metaphor in settlement and organisation. These two processes may be regarded as the avenues through which Caribbean peoples have ‘indigenised’ in the countries of settlement.