Employment, Income and Economic Identity in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Abstract

The explosive tourism-led growth experienced by the U.S. Virgin Islands during the 1960s and early 1970s reflected the duality of the Virgin Islands’ socioeconomic identity. Although growth was dependent on the U.S. economy and U.S. policies, it also reaffirmed the links the Virgin Islands had developed with the Eastern Caribbean labor market in spite of their unique history as a Danish and then an American colony. Relatively large scale inflows of Eastern Caribbean labor caused both general and relative wage effects, compression of the wage and income structures, and redistribution of income away from labor. Increased labor market segmentation exacerbated the inherent ambivalence of the Virgin Islands’ Eastern Caribbean identity. The nature of the transformation of employment and income in the Virgin Islands undermined the benefits derived by the indigenous labor force and established the bases of subsequent socioeconomic conflict.

Social identity in the modern United States Virgin Islands

“…They have seen the control of their environment slipping into foreign hands. As a consequence, the ESECI have been accused of rising crime, unemployment among natives, and have been subjected to opprobrium and epithets such as 'garrot', and 'down islanders' (Domingo, 1989). The round-up and deportation of an estimated 7000 to 15,000 illegals, a majority being ESECI, by the Immigration and Naturalization (INS) in 1971 in an attempt to stop the scourge of crime placed further challenge on the hopes of cultural and regional integration in the USVI (see de Chabert, 1971;Boyer, 1982, pp.…”