Caribbean Migration

Originally published in 1992, this text considers out-migration from the Caribbean in an analytical manner. Its comparative approach, involving three islands (Jamaica, Barbados and St Vincent) and the range of micro-environments within those islands, is based on data from extensive surveys and in-depth interviews. Analysis of the migration process reflects the perspective of Caribbean potential migrants themselves. The author aims to contribute to the study of international migration at a theoretical level, destroying the myth of migration being purely the result of poverty and overpopulation and rejecting explanations based on push-pull models and the unilateral flow inherent in such models. Instead she presents a conceptualization of Caribbean migration that is fundamentally circular and self-perpetuating, and which has become part of the institutional framework of Caribbean societies. Migration behaviour is a response to Caribbean circumstances and is an intrinsic part of the formation of the image of self and life chances of the individual. This image, conditioned by the particular location of the individual in relation to the national and international system, is the key element in explaining the complex interplay of global, societal and personal factors resulting in the propensity to move and in the actual move itself.