Prospects for Employment
From Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York City
Caribbean immigrants have crossed many borders while maintaining transnational ties in search of better social and economic mobility. One of their most popular destinations is the United States where Caribbean immigrants search for employment in order to achieve higher economic status. With every journey comes its obstacles, and one of the biggest hurdles that many Caribbean immigrants have to jump is language.
Language is a central asset that one needs to access greater employment opportunity in the United States. English is the language of the country and therefore being able to communicate in this language is a major factor in achieving economic mobility. This hinders various Caribbean immigrants from obtaining higher-level occupations especially because so many of them come from countries where English is not the official language. Those immigrants travel to the United States and find that if they are not able to communicate to employers and make the right social connections, they cannot gain a higher status for themselves.
| Puerto Ricans | Dominicans | Cubans | Haitians | Jamaicans | |
| % persons in poverty | 38.3 | 32.4 | 21.4 | 15.1 | 9.4 |
| Median household income | 27,484 | 27,268 | 37,212 | 40,321 | 45,088 |
| College Graduates | 6.7 | 5.8 | 14 | 11.6 | 14.7 |
| Labor Force participation | 58.6 | 63.6 | 70.5 | 83.9 | 79.2 |
| Unemployment Rate | 13.5 | 16.5 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 8.8 |
| Speaks English “not well or not at all” | 15.8 | 48.1 | 37.4 | 21.4 | 0 |
The above table contains statistics on five different Caribbean groups in 1990. The number of Caribbean immigrants in the labor force and those unemployed depends on many factors such as education, gender, and economic niches in addition to English proficiency, which account for the varying statistics in the table. This table also shows how the West Indians (two of the five groups mentioned: Haitians and Jamaicans), differ from the rest of the Caribbean when it comes to economic mobility. The West Indian groups in New York City seemed to fare better than the other Caribbean groups.
Spanish-speaking Dominicans have the highest unemployment rates coupled with the lowest percentage of people with a professional occupation, and Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans have the lowest percentage of people working in the labor force. These two groups became a marginalized class years after, working in low to semi-skilled occupations, which later became permanent low-paying jobs instead of access to upper level occupations. In 1990, more than half of the Puerto Rican population in New York City was unemployed or out of the labor force (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 347, 1997). The Dominicans seemed to be following that trend as early as the 1980s. “Neither group had sufficient skills or educational levels to shift from these economic niches to the better paid sectors (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 349, 1997).
More than one-third of the Haitian migrants who came after the 1960s were white-collar workers or worked in professional occupations. Many of them had been educated while in Haiti, and upon entering the United States, they did not discontinue their work ethic or their education. Haitian immigrants almost immediately took upon themselves to learn English once they arrived. “Just two years after arriving, more than sixty-five percent had taken English or another education course (Stepick 38, 1998).” Having previous education and the drive to learn the official language of the country boosted their employment status, allowing many Haitians to go into professional fields. “More than 22,000 Haitians nationwide have either managerial or professional positions. Haitians are medical doctors, engineers, college professors, business executives, lawyers, stock brokers, teachers and nurses (Stepick 53, 1998).”
However, as you can see from the table, Jamaicans have the second highest percentage of people in the labor force as well as the highest percentage in the professional industry. Jamaicans also have the highest median household income among these five Caribbean groups. Almost half of the Jamaicans in the U.S. were working in better-paid social, clerical, and trade sectors by 1980 and over twenty percent founds jobs in the government and non-for-profit organizations. Similar to the Haitians, the Jamaicans that migrated to New York had a higher percentage of people with at least some college education compared to other Caribbean groups. Since Jamaica was colonized by Britain, the main language became English or English Creole. Jamaicans had a different experience in the employment sector from the other four Caribbean groups mentioned. Their fluency in English gave them a greater advantage over the other aforementioned Caribbean groups. It allowed them to communicate with more people in the United States and find higher-paying occupations. “More than one-third of Jamaican employed women work in the health care industry and the English skills of others permitted them access to domestic employment through network hiring and referrals (Grasmuck and Grosfoguel 344, 1997).”
These statistics are just a few of many that reinforce the importance of language when it comes to pursuing jobs in the United States. Out of the Caribbean groups discussed, the West Indian groups, the Haitians and Jamaicans, Education coupled with the knowledge of a certain language can aid one greatly in finding employment and achieve a higher social and economic status.
Works Cited
Grasmuck, Sherri and Grosfoguel, Ramon. "Geopolitics, Economic Niches, and Gendered Social Capital among Recent Caribbean Immigrants in New York City." Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 40, No. 3, Immigration and Incorporation, (1997): 339-363. JSTOR. University of California Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1389447
Stepick, Alex. Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.