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On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the solo transatlantic race, the Route du Rhum, Geneafinder has chosen to share with you a counter-current article.
We will not talk about European immigration to the Caribbean, but rather about the emigration of Caribbeans to major American and European powers.
The origin of the Route du Rhum lies in the idea of reviving the rum industry, which was once one of the most important industries in Guadeloupe. But at the root of the emigration of many Caribbean inhabitants is the search for a less harsh life. Once colonies, since the mid-20th century, emigration has played a predominant role in these islands. It is now a region that is left, rather than a region where people settle.
Different sources report that nearly 6 million inhabitants of the Caribbean left their country for North America and Europe in the 20th century. Indeed, developed countries and their industries were growing rapidly and needed a workforce. This workforce, in some ways, allowed them to enrich themselves during and after the war (armament factories, thriving automobile business, and reconstruction). In the 1960s, the United States and Canada even implemented laws to encourage the arrival of these Caribbean migrants.
Unfavorable or unstable political climate, economic difficulties, desertification... the reasons to push Caribbeans to leave with the hope that the grass is greener elsewhere are numerous. Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Haitians, Jamaicans, Barbadians, and Guyanese will leave for the United States, while many Antilleans, from Guadeloupe and Martinique, will leave for France.
The first wave of migration from the Antilles to France arrived during the interwar period. Coming mainly from the middle classes, these new arrivals aimed to work, study, and train on the continent before returning home. From the 1960s onwards, their numbers exploded after, among other things, the collapse of sugar plantation exploitation and the resulting social crisis. Migrants from the Antilles even represented the 5th largest group of immigrants in mainland France, after the Portuguese, North Africans, and Italians. This large wave of migration is also explained by the fact that it was largely encouraged by French factories in need of labor, then facilitated by the French government at the time.
The slowdown in economic growth in France and the difficult conditions of the labor market in the 1970s explain the decline in the interest of Antillean departures to the mainland. Many will return home, with more than 20,000 doing so in the 1990s. In these same years, this labor migration is more often found in low-skilled jobs and/or in public services that recruit through national competitions.
However, the arrival of Antilleans in France was not a smooth ride. Unemployment, financial difficulties, discrimination, and racism mark the lives of these overseas French whose integration was not always easy. In response to these difficulties, Antilleans mobilize and have no other alternative than to claim their collective cultural identity.
And if the Antilles eventually call them back, returning to their island is not so simple either. While immigrants from the 1960s returned with pride to the islands, the longer the years passed, the more difficult it became. Some codes of Antillean culture (the traditional language, the cuisine, the lifestyle...) that they claimed on the continent evolved during their decades of absence. They sometimes forgot some notions of Creole and also endure the contempt of those who never left. So how to find one's place as migrations continue? That is the real question.
In conclusion, humans are like plants: very attached to their roots, we sometimes need to move away from home to survive, to settle elsewhere, to adapt, to make a place for ourselves to capture a little light, and then to leave again... It is not an easy task, and there are many lessons to be learned from the history of these overseas French.
For further reading:
History and memory of migrations in regions, Martinique – Guadeloupe
Martinique and Guadeloupe in the history of French regional migrations from 1848 to the present day.
History of Guadeloupe, Volume 1
The French West Indies, particularly Guadeloupe, from their discovery to January 1, 1823
New voyage to the islands of America. Volume 2
New voyage to the islands of America. Volume 5