West Indian Identity in the Diaspora

Abstract

When West Indians 1 move abroad, they begin to see themselves and others in new ways. Nowhere is this more evident than in the emergence of new racial and ethnic identities. As West Indians travel abroad in search of economic opportunities and resources, all too often they find themselves living in societies in which blackness is more devalued than it was at home, and they face significant barriers because of their race. Being black and being West Indian take on new meanings in the immigrant situation and form the basis for new alliances as well as new divisions with people of other racial and ethnic groups they come into contact with away from home. Just what kinds of ethnic and racial identities-and racial and ethnic relations-develop among West Indian migrants depends on the particular context into which they move. This may, at first glance, seem obvious. After all, English-speaking West Indians have migrated in significant numbers, over the years, to a variety of different places, including other Caribbean islands, Central America, the United States, and Britain. One would expect West Indians who move to the United States, for example, to have a different sense of racial consciousness from West Indians in Britain. But there is much that is not obvious. Although we may expect to find contrasts between West Indians who go to different destinations, we certainly cannot always predict what the differences will be. Nor are the structural features of the receiving society that shape West Indian identity always immediately apparent. Indeed, it is only through careful cross-national comparisons that we can begin to understand the complex, sometimes subtle, and often surprising ways in