West Indian Americans


West Indian Americans or Caribbean Americans are Americans who can trace their ancestry to the Caribbean, unless they are of native descent. As of 2016, about 13 million — about 4% of the total U.S. population — have Caribbean ancestry.
The Caribbean is the source of the United States' earliest and largest Black immigrant group and the primary source of growth of the Black population in the U.S. The region has exported more of its people than any other region of the world since the abolition of slavery in 1834. While the largest Caribbean immigrant sources to the U.S. are Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti, U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands also migrate to the US proper.

Caribbean immigration to the United States

17th to mid-19th century

The history of African-Caribbean immigration in the United States can be traced back to slavery when the British colonies in the Americas shifted enslaved Africans to different territories, as the demands of capital and plantation economy dictated.
First Africans from the West Indies who arrived in the United States were slaves brought to South Carolina in the 17th century. These slaves, many of whom were born in Africa, number among the first people of African origin imported to the British colonies of North America. Over time, Barbadian slaves would make up a significant part of the Black population in Virginia, mainly in the Virginia tidewater region of the Chesapeake Bay. The number of enslaved Africans bought from the Caribbean increased in the 18th century, as the Thirteen Colonies broadened its trade relations with other Caribbean islands.
The number of enslaved Africans imported from the Caribbean decreased after the New York Slave Revolt of 1712, as many white colonists blamed the incident on slaves recently arrived from the Caribbean. Nevertheless, between 1715 and 1741 most of the slaves of the colony remained from the West Antilles. However, after the New York slave revolt of 1741, slaves imported from the Caribbean were severely curtailed, and most enslaved Africans were brought directly from Africa.
Although Caribbean immigration to the United States was relatively small in the first years of 19th century, it grew significantly after the end of the American Civil War in 1865, which brought about the abolition of slavery. In the 19th century, the U.S. attracted many Caribbeans who excelled in various professions such as craftsmen, scholars, teachers, preachers, doctors, inventors, religious, comedians, politics, poets, songwriters, and activists. From the end of the 19th century up to 1905, most West Indian people emigrated to South Florida, New York and Massachusetts. However, shortly after, New York would become the main destination for the West Indian immigrants.

World War II through the 21st century

Immigration from the region to the U.S. gained momentum during World War II when 50,000 black and white Caribbeans arrived in the 1940s, taking advantage of the rapidly expanding war economy and post-war economic growth. Thousands came as legal migrant workers brought to work in agriculture, primarily on Florida's sugar plantations. By the end of the war, thousands of contract workers from the Caribbean were employed as W2 workers
Most of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America historically have had little tradition of immigration to America, before the 1960s. Post 1965 saw a tremendous influx of rural working-class migrants. Proximity to the U.S., fluency in English and Civil Rights legislation were reasons for the disproportionate numbers of Caribbean outflows. The collapse of agriculture in many islands had devastated their economies, the growing replacement of agriculture by tourism in the Eastern Caribbean had greatly increased the urban population and led to neglect of rural communities as well as greater migration to the U.S. from the Caribbean countryside.
The influx of direct, capital-intensive and labor-intensive foreign investment has accelerated the push to migrate out of the region, to the extent that these investments overwhelmed small-scale agriculture and manufacturing and displace workers who sought jobs elsewhere.
Today, there is a fourth wave of Caribbean migration in United States. The number of Caribbean immigrants grew up from 193,922 in 1960 to 2 million in 2009.

Demography

The majority of Hispanic/Latino Caribbeans are of mixed-race ancestry, usually having a near even mix of white Spanish, black West African, and native Caribbean Taino. Though, African ancestry is slightly stronger among Dominican multiracials, while among Puerto Rican and Cuban multiracials European ancestry is slightly stronger. Many of these European-dominant multiracials in Puerto Rico and Cuba self identify solely as "white" for historical reasons, however when they arrive to the US mainland many of them often start to see race differently. There is also significant numbers of actual whites and blacks among these groups.
The vast majority of non-Hispanic West Indian Americans are of black Afro-Caribbean descent, with the remaining portion mainly made up of multi-racials and Indo-Caribbean people, especially in the Guyanese, Trinidadian, and Surinamese communities, where people of Indo-Caribbean descent make up a significant portion of the populations. The parts of the Caribbean that are almost completely dominated by full-blooded blacks are Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, and majority of the island-nations in the Lesser Antilles. People from Haiti are genetically and culturally the most African people outside of Africa, with almost no non-African admixture in the gene pool of the average Haitian and the most African influenced culture of any country outside of Africa.
Over 70 percent of Caribbean immigrants were from Jamaica and Haiti, as of 2010. Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Grenada, among others, also have significant immigrant populations within the United States. Though sometimes divided by language, West Indian Americans share a common Caribbean culture. Of the Hispanic population, the Puerto Rican, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Honduran, Panamanian, Cuban, and Costa Rican populations are the most culturally similar to the non-Hispanic West Indian community.
Many black Afro-Latinos in the Spanish-speaking countries of Central America often have cultures that resemble the English Caribbean, due to various historical events, such as Caribbean coastal areas of these countries originally being English colonies and after these countries were established there was migration from the English Caribbean to the Caribbean coast of Central America. This is especially true of the blacks in Panama, this is because atleast half of them are descended from Jamaican immigrants who came to Panama in the early 1900s, many are bilingual in Spanish and English, and considered themselves to be West Indian as well.

Caribbean American communities

Location

In Florida 549,722 West Indians were foreign born as of 2016. Florida had the largest number of resident West Indian immigrants in 2016, followed by New York with 490,826 according to the US census.
As of 2016, 9.8% of the total foreign born residence in the United States was born in the Caribbean.
In 2016, 18% of Florida's population reported ancestry from the Caribbean.
State/territoryNon-Hispanic West Indian-American
population 		Percentage
8,8500.1
1,1950.1
7,6760.1
5,4990.2
76,9680.2
7,0760.1
87,1492.4
6,4540.8
7,7851.2
927,0314.5
Georgia128,5991.25
2,8160.2
6940.0
27,0380.2
7,4200.1
1,7100.0
2,7750.0
5,4070.1
7,2900.1
2,0230.1
62,3581.0
123,2261.9
15,4820.1
6,0340.1
1,8890.0
6,5090.1
5930.0
1,6290.0
5,9670.2
2,7660.2
141,8281.6
2,8690.1
844,0644.3
32,2830.3
3770.0
14,8440.1
21,1870.5
3,8960.1
74,7990.6
6,8800.7
10,8650.2
4740.0
6,1300.0
70,0000.2
1,6750.0
3750.0
40,1720.5
8,7660.1
1,5550.0
5,6230.0
5260.0
USA4 million1.3%

U.S. Counties with largest non-Latino Caribbean American populations in 2016

  1. Kings County, New York 305,950
  2. Broward County, Florida 277,646
  3. Miami-Dade County, Florida 184,393
  4. Queens County, New York 166,952
  5. Palm Beach County, Florida 126,020
  6. Bronx County, New York 115,348

    Language

More than half of Caribbean immigrants either spoke only English or spoke English "very well." In 2009, 33.0 percent of Caribbean immigrants reported speaking only English and 23.9 percent reported speaking English "very well." In contrast, 42.8 percent of Caribbean immigrants were limited English proficient, meaning they reported speaking English less than "very well." Within this group, 9.7 percent reported that they did not speak English at all, 16.5 percent reported speaking English "well," and 16.7 percent reported speaking English "but not well."

Occupations

According to the US census for 2016. West Indian Americans of the civilian employed population 16 years and over were 1,549,890. 32.6% were employed in Management, business, science, and arts occupations, 28.5% in Service occupations, 22.2% in Sales and office occupations, 6.1% in Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, and 10.5% in Production, transportation, and material moving occupations.

Income

As of 2017 West Indian Americans are estimated to have a median household income of $54,033. West Indians also have a median family income of $62,867. Married-couple family: $80,626, Male householder, no spouse present, family: $53,101, Female householder, no husband present, family: $43,929. Their Individual per capita income was $26,033.

Education attainment

As of 2017, 27.1 percent of West Indian Americans 25 years and over have a bachelor's degree or higher. Male, bachelor's degree or higher was 23.1% and Female, bachelor's degree or higher was 30.3%.

Related ethnic groups and topics

There are close to 50 Caribbean carnivals throughout North America that attest to the permanence of the Caribbean immigration experience. The Caribbean people brought music, such as bachata, cadence rampa, calypso, chutney, compas, cumbia, dancehall, filmi, Latin trap, méringue, merengue, parang, ragga, rapso, reggae, reggaeton, salsa, ska, soca, and zouk, which has a profound impact on U.S. popular culture. Cultural expressions, and the prominence of first-and second-generation Caribbean figures in U.S. labor and grassroots politics for many decades also testify to the long tradition and established presence.

Notable Caribbean Americans and Americans of Caribbean descent

National Caribbean American Heritage Month

National Caribbean American Heritage Month is celebrated in June. The heritage month was first officially observed in 2006, after being unanimously adopted by the House of Representatives on June 27, 2005 in H. Con. Res. 71, sponsored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, recognizing the significance of Caribbean people and their descendants in the history and culture of the United States.
The Senate adopted the resolution on February 14, 2006, which was introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.
On June 5, 2006, George W. Bush issued a presidential proclamation declaring than June be annually recognized as National Caribbean American Heritage Month to celebrate the contributions of Caribbean Americans in the United States. Since the declaration, the White House has issued an annual proclamation recognizing June as National Caribbean-American Heritage Month.
The Institute of Caribbean Studies based in Washington DC is the lead organization behind the Campaign which led to the establishment of Caribbean American Heritage Month.