West Indian Immigrants Research Articles

Ethnicity, Religion and Repression: The Denial of African Heritage in Costa Rica

The experience of West Indians in Costa Rica in the first decades of the twentieth century was marked by instances of racism and intolerance. The West Indian immigrants were English-speaking Protestants of African descent, and they found themselves in a Hispanic country that distinguished itself as a white settler society in Central America. West Indians were discriminated against by their Hispanic neighbours, United Fruit Company officials, and the Costa Rican government. Tension increased as the banana industry faltered and the world economy declined in the 1930s. This article examines the reaction of West Indian community leaders and the Costa Rican government to the proliferation of African-influenced religious sects in Limón during the 1930s. The sects were a source of division within the community and a target of discrimination by Hispanics. The article looks at the rise in popularity of the sects and studies some of the reactions to the heightened profile of the religious groups. Hysteria is shown to have replaced common sense after the local press alleged that the sects committed all sorts of atrocities. The government’ s response was to arrest and attempt to deport suspected practitioners. The local West Indian elite, mindful of the tenuous footing the community had in Costa Rica, joined in the condemnation of and attacks against the dissident religious groups. The increased popularity of African-influenced religion was not just a passing episode in the history of the West Indian community in Costa Rica. It was part of a larger social malaise that marked a turning point in the relationship between the West Indian minority and Hispanic majority in Costa Rica.

Motor neuron disease and multiple sclerosis among immigrants to England from the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean, and east and west Africa.

The mortality from motor neuron disease (MND) and multiple sclerosis (MS) was studied among immigrants to England and Wales from the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean, and East and West Africa during the 10 years 1979-88. The MND mortality among ethnic Asian males was only half and for females one fifth of that expected at English rates. MND mortality in Caribbean immigrants was somewhat lower than expected. White immigrants from the Indian subcontinent had the expected MND mortality. MS mortality was low among Asian, West Indian, and African immigrants. This study is evidence that MND mortality is not the same in all ethnic groups.

The Social and Political Integration of West Indians in Costa Rica: 1930–50

People of African descent in Costa Rica form a marginalised and geographically concentrated minority group. The limited interest that academics have shown towards people of African descent is a reflection of their position in Costa Rican society. National histories consistently ignore the contributions of West Indian immigrants to the economic and social development of modern Costa Rica. Moreover, the existing literature on people of African descent in Costa Rica fails to document properly West Indians' efforts to integrate into Hispanic society. As a result, several misconceptions continue to exist about the evolution of the West Indian community in Costa Rica.

Urban Housing Segregation of Minorities in Western Europe and the United States.

This book provides an expert examination and comparison of housing segregation in major population centers in the United States and Western Europe and analyzes successes and failures of government policies and desegregation programs in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, and West Germany. The collection begins with a review of the historical development of housing segregation in these countries, describing current housing conditions, concentration of housing in each country's leading cities, minority populations and the housing they occupy-specifically public, nonprofit, and owner-occupied dwellings. When focusing on the United States, the contributors assess housing segregation, antisegregation measures, and institutional racism toward blacks in the Midwest and South, and toward Mexican-Americans throughout American cities. Chapters dealing with Western Europe include housing segregation of South Asian and West Indian immigrants in Britain, immigrants in Sweden, Turkish, and Yugoslav guest workers in West Germany, and Algerian and other Arab groups in France. The book concludes with discussions of public housing policies; suburban desegregation, resegregation, and integration maintenance programs; specific integration stabilization programs; and desegregation efforts in one specific place. Contributors. Elizabeth Huttman, Michal Arend, Cihan Arin, Maurice Blanc, Wim Blauw, Ger Mik, Clyde McDaniels, Jurgen Friedrichs, Hannes Alpheis, John M. Goering, Len Gordon, Albert Mayer, Rosemary Helper, Barry V. Johnston, Terry Jones, Valerie Karn, Goran Lindberg, Anna Lisa Linden, Deborah Phillips, Dennis Keating, Juliet Saltman, Alan Murie

Are polioviruses a cause of schizophrenia?

Pre-natal infection with polioviruses could contribute to the subsequent development of schizophrenia. The hypothesis draws support from the declining incidence of schizophrenia, the excess of schizophrenic winter births, and the increased rates of schizophrenia among West Indian immigrants. There are parallels with other late sequelae of poliovirus infections. These postulations generate a testable hypothesis of a genetic link between schizophrenia and susceptibility to poliomyelitis.

Forgotten Workers: British West Indians and the Early Days of the Banana Industry in Costa Rica and Honduras

The Central America of books, and indeed of our imaginations, does not have very many black actors. That is not because blacks have not been present in the unfolding of Central American history. It is because their participation has been selectively ignored. During the last decade there have been a few welcome exceptions to this trend; however, a lacuna still remains. This article focuses on the role played by the first generation of black British West Indian immigrants in the development of the Costa Rican and Honduran labour movements - an area of history in which blacks have been particularly ignored.To this day the populations of black British West Indian descent living on the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica and Honduras have remained outside the mainstream of political and cultural life in these two countries. It is not surprising, therefore, that they have also been neglected historically.Nowhere is this tendency more glaring than in the literature on labour history – especially that concerned with the important banana exporting sector. With few exceptions, the role of the British West Indian workers in the early period of the banana industry is dismissed. Those that acknowledge their role minimise the workers' importance by arguing that they failed to act collectively in challenging their employers. In brief, this view argues that black West Indian workers are not important to a study of labour politics in Honduras and Costa Rica.Historical evidence renders this suggestion invalid. The British West Indian workers who came to Honduras and Costa Rica during the last century in search of employment were neither indifferent to, nor totally accepting of, their situation.

The Relationship Between Schizophrenia and Immigration are There Alternatives to Psychosocial Hypotheses?

Several recent studies have found markedly increased rates of schizophrenia among West Indian immigrants to the UK. Almost exclusively, authors have sought psychosocial explanations for these findings. This paper hypothesises that environmental causes, notably obstetric complications and perinatal infections, provide more plausible aetiological models, especially for the raised rates of schizophrenia among second-generation West Indian immigrants.

In search of a better life: perspectives on migration from the Caribbean

Foreword by Gordon K. Lewis Preface Origins and Destinations Caribben Development and the Migration Imperative by Ransford W. Palmer Ninteenth-Century West Indian Migration to Britain by Peter D. Fraser Forty-and-One Years On: An Overview of Afro-Caribbean Migration to the United Kingdom by Mel. E. Thompson Settlement and Adaptation Education and Qualifications of Caribbean Immigrants and Their Children in Britain and Canada by Anthony H. Richmond and Aloma Mendoza Dominican International Migration: The Role of Households and Social Networks by Patricia R. Pessar Dependents or Independent Workers?: The Status of Caribbean Immigrant Women in the United States by Monica H. Gordon The New Female West Indian Immigrant: Dilemmas of Coping in the Host Society by Aubrey W. Bonnett Illegal Migration Amnesty for Illegal Aliens from the Caribbean: Implications for Future Immigration Flows by Lisa S. Roney Illegal Migration from the Caribbean by Ransford W. Palmer Index

Multiple sclerosis among United Kingdom-born children of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the West Indies.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is very uncommon among ethnic Asians in the Indian subcontinent, among Asians and Africans resident in the New Commonwealth countries of Africa and in the West Indies. It is also very uncommon among those who have migrated to England from those countries. In contrast, the children born in the United Kingdom of Asian, African and West Indian immigrants have, in the age groups available for study, a high prevalence of MS of a similar order to that occurring in the general population of England.

The British state and immigration, 1945–51: New light on the empire Windrush

In many of the standard texts on the history of race relations in modern Britain, the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948 is seen as a symbol of the escalation of West Indian immigration and of ‘race problems’. However, by detailed analysis of official records and local studies, it can be shown that the process whereby ‘race’ became a major political issue was a more uneven and complex one than the standard historiography often suggests. There was an ambiguity of attitudes, national and local, not strong enough to challenge the mainstream of racism, but sufficient to create a far more involved debate about the ultimate significance of the Empire Windrush's voyage.

The West Indian Family: Treatment Challenges

The authors discuss the culture-specific problems faced by West Indian immigrants who received treatment at the East Brooklyn Prevention Program. The characteristics, patterns, and functioning of this population must be identified before effective treatment can occur.

Dietary and other characteristics relevant for coronary heart disease in men of Indian, West Indian and European descent in London

The origins of the high standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for coronary heart disease (CHD) among Indians in Britain, and the low SMR for West Indian immigrants, have been explored by a community survey in London. Serum lipoproteins, plasma glucose, haemostatic factors and other putative risk characteristics were measured in 75 Indian, 64 European and 24 West Indian men aged 45–54 years. These represented 81% of men registered with a general practice and resident within a defined area. In 51 men, diet was assessed by 5-day weighed inventory. Plasma phospholipid fatty acids (PFA) were measured in 18 Indians and 19 Europeans with dietary records. The relatively high HDL and HDL 2-cholesterol concentrations, low LDL-cholesterol concentration, reduced fat intake, increased ratio of dietary polyunsaturated/saturated fat, relatively frequent use of alcohol, and lack of obesity in West Indians accorded with their low SMR from CHD. By contrast, only the relatively low HDL and HDL 2-cholesterol concentrations, infrequency of alcohol consumption, and lower proportion of PFA as n - 3 fatty acids of marine origin afforded explanations for the high SMR of Indians. Hyperglycaemia appeared similarly prevalent in Indians and West Indians, but less common in Europeans. Of the haemostatic factors, West Indians had a relatively low VII (not statistically significant), while Indians had an increased platelet count and reduced platelet volume. Improved understanding of these ethnic differences in CHD mortality may depend upon elucidation of the contrasts in HDL-cholesterol concentration.

Raking the Field of the Discourse of Racism

In order to disavow our social life of a set of social relations as destructive as racism, it is necessary to comprehend it in its full complexity. It is little wonder, then, that racism is yet so much a feature of contemporary social experience. The prevailing accounts of racism institutionalized by the mainstream academic perspectives have created an object corresponding only in part to the wide range of racism's manifestations in our daily experience. Racism has been defined widely as an irrational group prejudice asserting superiority or inferiority of members of races on unwarranted groups of physical or mythical properties, such as skin color, blood, and so forth. Consider, however, the following spreading examples: Charles, a white Englishman, votes to end West Indian immigration because he finds his neighborhood transforming culturally from one of privacy, chamber music and bacon 'n eggs to that of public steel drum music, Jamaican food and natty dreadlocks. Similarly, Friedrich, a white German, votes to end migrant labor because he watched his turf changing from one of Wagner and schnitzel to belly dancing, shish kebab and Turkish delight. Both are clearly racist in their relevant beliefs and acts here. But no prejudgment need be made by them about some a priori group

Ulcerative Colitis in West Indian Immigrants

Over a 15-year period six patients (five female) of Afro-Caribbean origin presented with ulcerative colitis from a community of this ethnic extraction numbering 47,000 persons. The disease was characterised by an acute severe presentation, extensively affected bowel, an active course of disease and a propensity for severe hypersensitive reactions to oral sulphasalazine. These findings are of particular implication in the management of ulcerative colitis in West Indians.

Social Work Practice with West Indian Immigrants

When West Indians come to live in North America, they encounter conflicting values. The resulting stress may lead to dysfunctional reactions, particularly in regard to parent-child relationships. Agency workers report on the program they developed to help such immigrants.

Sarcoidosis in Causians, Blacks and Asians in London

The incidence and clinical features of sarcoidosis were studied in a retrospective survey of 156 patients attending two South London hospitals between 1969 and 1982. Sixty-eight patients were Caucasian, 59 were Black West Indian or African immigrants and 29 were immigrants racially derived from Indo-Pakistan (Asians). The annual incidence of sarcoidosis in the local community in 1977-78 was 19.8 per 10 5 for Blacks and 16.8 per 10 5 for Asians compared with 1.5 per 10 5 for Caucasians. Erythema nodosum was a more common presenting feature in Caucasians than in Blacks ( P<0.001) or Asians ( P<0.05). Blacks developed sarcoidosis at a later age than Caucasians ( P<0.05) and were less likely to present as a chance finding on a chest radiograph ( P<0.05). They had more widespread extrathoracic disease than Caucasians ( P<0.001) and were more commonly treated with corticosteroids ( P<0.001). In the Asians there was a male predominance compared with Caucasians ( P<0.01). Asians also had more extrathoracic sarcoidosis than Caucasians ( P<0.001) and more of them were treated with corticosteroids ( P<0.05). A stage 2 chest radiograph at presentation ( P<0.05) and skin sarcoidosis ( P<0.05) were less common in Asians than in Blacks, but otherwise there were no significant differences between the two groups. In this study the incidence of sarcoidosis in Asians approached that in Blacks, while the clinical features were intermediate in severity between Blacks and Caucasians. In both Blacks and Asians the disease was more common, more severe and more extensive than in Caucasians.

Changes in tuberculosis notification rates in ethnic groups in england between 1971 and 1978/1979

Between special surveys in 1971 and 1978/1979 the estimated annual tuberculosis notification rate for males in England fell from 30.5 per 100 000 to 22.6 per 100000(a decline of 3.8% per year). For females the rate fell from 18.4 per 100 000 to 15.8 per 100 000 (1.9% per year). In each survey the lowest rates were those for the white ethnic group born in the United Kingdom. The highest rates, some more than 50 times as great, occurred in immigrants from the Indian sub-continent (Indian or Pakistani/Bangladeshi). The rates for immigrants from the West Indies were 3 to 4 times as great as than those for the white group. The most rapid reductions in rate between the surveys, of about 10% per year, occurred in West Indian immigrants of both sexes and in Pakistani/Bangladeshi male immigrants. The rate for Pakistani/Bangladeshi females fell by 6.5% per year. For whites born in the U.K. the annual rate of decline was 5.1% in each sex. There was very little change for Indian immigrants of either sex. Between the surveys, continued immigration of groups from the Indian subcontinent with high notification rates considerably slowed the decline in notification rate for the whole population. The steep downward trend in notification rate for the white ethnic group may be expected to continue, but changes in the other ethnic groups are more difficult to assess because they are influenced by so many uncertain factors. In addition, the trends in the non-white ethnic groups born in the United Kingdom cannot yet be ascertained, but will become of increasing importance.

ETHNIC FOOD HABITS

West Indian immigration to the UK and Europe occurred in the late fifties and sixties in response to a demand for labour. In 1976, the OPCS estimated that the population of West Indians of wholly ethnic origin was around half a million.

WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY: CANADA AND THE WEST INDIAN IMMIGRANT 1900–1965

(1982). WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY: CANADA AND THE WEST INDIAN IMMIGRANT 1900–1965. American Review of Canadian Studies: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 53-64.

Book Review: Institutional Adaptation of West Indian Immigrants to America: An Analysis of Rotating Credit Associations

Book Review: Institutional Adaptation of West Indian Immigrants to America: An Analysis of Rotating Credit Associations