Caribbean Transnationalism

Exploring the old and new forms of transnationalism stemming from the Caribbean, Caribbean Transnationalism challenges present concepts about diaspora, brings into perspective new forms of transnationalism, and offers new perspectives on social cohesion in plural societies. The novelty of this collection of essays by experts from a wide range of disciplines consists not only of the theoretical clarity it offers with regard to issues related to diaspora, transnationalism, and social cohesion, but also of the ample attention given to the intra-regional transnational communities and the discussion of ethnification for social cohesion. Caribbean Transnationalism calls into question traditional views held in the expanding fields of migration, transnationalism, and social cohesion, making this an important book for scholars and students interested in the study of the social sciences and Caribbean studies.

The global pathways that connect cities and nations are congested with people, money, and cultural transmissions. Transnational Yearnings maps a new way to look at modern contact zones and the personal interconnections that inform them by tracing circuits of migration and leisure travel between postcolonial Jamaica and Toronto, a city that has become for Jamaican Canadians both a place of promise and cultural vitality and a site of criminalization and exclusion through deportation. Innovative and provocative, this book is about the desires, intimacies, and power relations that at once inform and reflect transnational migration and the diasporization of urban space.

This book highlights important but insufficiently documented dimensions of the experience of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants in the United States. It focuses on successes and challenges of what might be perceived as “living in two worlds.” The central theme, post-migration transnational connections, is informed by new research on the topic. The thrust of the book is on trends, practices, and policies pertaining to transnational issues, and it uses both academic and applied approaches in its research. Having examined contemporary adjustment concerns of Caribbean immigrants, the authors present research findings, critical analyses, and suggest possible solutions to social and psychological problems immigrants confront as their life space is influenced by both places of origin and destination. This book fills a void in the literature pertaining to the emerging transnational experiences of Anglophone Caribbean immigrants that has not been fully explored.

Blurred Borders

This book offers a timely intervention in current debates on diaspora and diasporic identity by affirming the importance of narrative as a discursive mode to understand the human face of contemporary migrations and dislocations. Focusing on the Caribbean double-diaspora, Pulitano offers a close-reading of a range of popular works by four well-known writers currently living in the United States: Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, Edwidge Danticat, and Caryl Phillips. Navigating the map of fictional characters, testimonial accounts, and autobiographical experiences, Pulitano draws attention to the lived experience of contemporary diasporic formations. The book offers a provocative re-thinking of socio-scientific analyses of diaspora by discussing the embodied experience of contemporary diasporic communities, drawing on disciplines such as Caribbean, Postcolonial, Diaspora, and Indigenous Studies along with theories on "border thinking" and coloniality/modernity. Contesting restrictive, national, and linguistic boundaries when discussing literature originating from the Caribbean, Pulitano situates the transnational location of Caribbean-born writers within current debates of Transnational American Studies and investigates the role of immigrant writers in discourses of race, ethnicity, citizenship, and belonging. Exploring the multifarious intersections between home, exile, migration and displacement, the book makes a significant contribution to memory and trauma studies, human rights debates, and international law, aiming at a wide range of scholars and specialized agents beyond the strictly literary circle. This volume affirms the humanity of personal stories and experiences against the invisibility of immigrant subjects in most theoretical accounts of diaspora and migration.

'A timely account and analysis of the lived reality ... of West Indians who now tenant the Caribbean Diaspora in Britain.' --Professor Rex Nettleford, University W Indies

DIVAn ethnographic study of migration based on the experiences of three dispersed Caribbean families as they maintain networks across their diverse locations./div

This book examines Caribbean people resisting racial, political, and social oppression from the eve of the 1790s Haitian Revolution to the twenty-first century. Migrating rebels, shipments of newspapers, rumors, and acts of resistance themselves inspired people throughout the Caribbean who launched their own acts of defiance, illustrating the transnational nature of Caribbean resistance. Some people fought to be left alone, ungovernable, and masterless. Other people fought to free their ethnicity or race, their class, or their nation. Men and women employed a range of tactics from violent armed uprisings to fleeing repression and starting their own communities. Through song, language, religion and festivals, they maintained cultures and identities against oppressive norms that devalued or sought to destroy those cultures and identities. People declared strikes and riots against economic oppression. Women and mothers mobilized for their and their children’s freedoms. Across the Caribbean, people confronted oppression and in so doing illustrated their humanity and agency.