Geopolitics, Economic Niches, and Gendered Social Capital among Recent Caribbean Immigrants in New York City

Abstract

This article examines the different socio-economic consequences of migration for Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Jamaicans and Haitians in the context of New York City. Migration outcomes are structured by a range of influences, including geopolitics, class selectivity, de-industrialization, ethnic niches and the timing of settlement. Emphasis is placed on the importance of variations in the household structures and gender strategies of these groups for understanding their different socioeconomic situations in the 1990s. Differences in the labor force participation patterns of the women in these communities and the employment traditions upon which they draw have significant consequences for the well-being of the five groups. These cases also question the common assumption that high rates of female headed-households inevitably lead to high rates of poverty, a pattern found among Dominicans and Puerto Ricans but not among Jamaicans and Haitians.

Memorias Transatlánticas: pan-hispanismos, latinismos, americanismos / Transatlantic Memories: Pan-hispanisms, latinisms, americanisms

“…El "racismo cultural" es la nueva forma discursiva de la exclusión racial en los Estados Unidos. Por consiguiente, la situación de muchos puertorriqueños hoy no es meramente la de una fuerza de trabajo barata, sino la de ser una población masivamente excluida de acceso a empleos (Grasmuck y Grosfoguel, 1997). Los puertorriqueños tienen hoy día una de las tasas de pobreza mas altas en los Estados Unidos, cercanas a un tercio de la población total y en algunas ciudades cercanas al 40 por ciento.…”

Puerto Ricans in the USA: A comparative approach

“…Since both Haitians and Jamaicans are primarily of Afro-Caribbean descent and settled near African-Americans, they avoided the racism directed against the African-American community in New York City by emphasising ethnic over racial identity. However, one major difference between the African-Americans and the immigrants from Haiti and Jamaica is the higher educational levels of the latter (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 1997). Meanwhile, the main diferences between Haitians and Jamaicans in the USA are: 1) the host society's stronger prejudices against Haitian culture; 2) the existence of a large white-collar community in the Jamaican case versus a more diversified working class community in the Haitian case; and 3) the Jamaican's first language is English, while for the Haitians it is Creole.…”

“…Many labour rights that were violated in the past by employers through repressive mechanisms and misinformation were now claimed by Puerto Ricans as part of their citizenship rights. Puerto Ricans' successful struggles for labour rights made them `too expensive' for the increasingly informalised manufacturing sector (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 1997). Simultaneously, the de-industrialisation of the Northeast, the region where most of the Puerto Ricans settled, led to the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs.…”

“…The manufacturing industry, in constant need of cheap labour, relied heavily on new Latino immigrants, legal or illegal, that had even fewer rights than internal colonial subjects such as the Puerto Ricans. The expulsion of Puerto Ricans from manufacturing jobs and an educational system that excluded Puerto Ricans from the best state-funded schools produced a redundant labour force that could not re-enter the formal labour market (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 1997). This led to the formation of what some have called the Puerto Rican `underclass', which I prefer to call a racialised displaced population.…”

“…Unable to find jobs, many Puerto Ricans developed popular strategies, legal or illegal, to survive the crisis. Currently, only 14 per cent of Puerto Ricans are in manufacturing and more than 50 per cent are either unemployed or out of the labour force (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 1997). Around 40 per cent of the Puerto Rican labour force is currently concentrated as cheap labour in retail trade and in services such as health, administrative support and educational occupations (U.S. Department of Commerce 1993, Table 4).…”