Through this article I will attempt to provide an introduction to the history of migration from the late 18th century to the 1990s.

It also offers a context within which to understand the present groups within the Diaspora, the 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay, and matters concerning the protests by bona-fide members of the Diasporic community in North America. The article covers a range of migration flows, the rise of immigrant groups, and the recent emergence of the Global Jamaican Diasporic Council (GJCC). It is not an analysis of migrant groups and the Jamaican society but a brief historical account of the Jamaican migrant experience.

Central America, South America, and Cuba

According to historical notes, the earliest wave of migration from Jamaica began during the 1795-1796 period when rebellious Maroons were captured and transported to Nova Scotia, Canada, in transit to be shipped to Sierra Leone.

The effective outflow of Jamaicans began in the post-Emancipation period. In the 1850s to the early to mid-1900s, there were outflows of Jamaicans to Central and South America. Amy Jacques Garvey, in her book Garvey and Garveyism provides a comprehensive historical and analytical account of the South and Central America experience of Jamaican migrants. Also interesting is the fact that a group of volunteers from Jamaica went to Cuba between 1895 and 1898 to fight alongside Cuban patriots in their Cuban War of Independence. The real flow of Jamaican migrants to Cuba spanned the early 1900s to the 1940s.

North America

Historical notes show that rebellious Jamaicans captured in the Maroon Wars were sent to Nova Scotia in 1796, but it was in the post-World War Two period that the real migration to that country started. The setting in Canada required a mass of unskilled workers, and in 1948 the Government passed a law that facilitated the first wave of modern migration of unskilled labourers to that country.

This facility was extended by the 1955 West Indian Domestic Scheme, but it was in the 1960s and 1970s that the population of Jamaican migrants exploded in Canada.

Jamaicans began to enter the USA in the post-1865 era as seasonal farm labourers and continued to 1881, some returned home while others stayed behind. While there was a quality migration of Jamaicans to that country in the post-World War One period, the real mass migration began after World War Two and increased the Jamaican migrant population in the 1960s and 1970s.

United Kingdom

Historical notes show that at the end of the 19th century there was a visible Jamaican migrant community in England. This community was expanded in the post-World War One era and further expanded in 1948 when the
HMT Empire Windrush unloaded hundreds of Jamaicans in England. This flow continued in the 1950s and was increased in the 1960s and 1970s.

It is important to note that Marcus Garvey (and the Universal Negro Improvement Association [UNIA]) was a major feature in Jamaica’s migrant communities in North and Central America, Cuba, and the United Kingdom. Garvey was concerned about the conditions of black labourers in the Americas and Cuba. He played a major role in labour relations in those areas and was a pillar of strength for Jamaicans in the Diaspora.

The depression of the 1930s and returned migration

During the Great Depression in the USA, a mass of Jamaican migrants was forced to return to their home country. This group of returned migrants, especially from New York, made critical interventions in political activities relating to the radical protests of the 1930s as well as contributed and provided leadership to both the political and trade union movement.

If there was a hero in 1938, that hero would be St William Grant. A Garveyite who returned home for a 1934 UNIA conference but refused to return to the USA due to the harsh, racist, and exploitative conditions faced by the black masses. He led marches and contributed to the emergence of the trade union movement.

In 1936 the Jamaica Progressive League (JPL) was formed in Harlem, USA, with the sole purpose of struggling for “self-government” for Jamaica. It is one of the oldest Jamaican immigrant groups in America and contributed to the emergence of the People’s National Party. It is still alive in Bronx, New York.

There was also Leonard P Howell, who was deported from New York in December 1932. He founded the idea and movement of Rastafari. It was the black conscious nature of those returned migrants, especially those from New York with their race consciousness, which ignited the radical nature of the anti-colonial politics in 1938.

New Diaspora groups

The period of the 1970s-1980s witnessed the formation of new groups in the New York Diasporic community. Before I illustrate this point I must inform that there has been a history of alumni organisations that require a separate study.

In 1977 the National Association of Jamaica and Supportive Organizations (NAJASO) was formed. It was reorganised in 2020.

In the 1980s the Jamaican National Movement, a breakaway group from the Jamaica Progressive League, was formed.

It was in 2020 that the Global Jamaica Diasporic Council (GJDC) was formed as an outgrowth of the antecedent Diaspora Advisory Board formed in 2004. The aim of the transformation process in 2020 was geared towards the development of a more dynamic group, having greater capacity to serve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the Government, and the country.

I am not clear if the GJDC is an umbrella group or a loose alliance of groups and individuals. Nevertheless, some members from this group have been staging demonstrations against the Government on matters concerning corruption and crime. This so-called dissident group, according to the story, offered the Ministry of National Security financial and research resources to assist crime fighting in the country, but their offers were rejected.

Demonstrations against the Jamaican Government by members of the Diaspora in the USA is not new; let us recall the 1970s under the Michael Manley regime.

This community must be handled most carefully and must not be politicised. It is time our political leaders stop seeing critique as opposition, a popular political practice in this country.

Remittances from the Jamaican Diaspora totalled in the billions of dollars, rivalling earnings from bauxite and tourism at times. The Diaspora should begin to deepen its investments in Jamaica, in small business projects and the agriculture industry with a view to assisting the well-needed rural development, areas grossly neglected by the Government. Their investments should receive the same benefits as foreign investors.

Lastly, the Diaspora has deep intellectual resources that could assist the Government, especially in areas such as negotiations with foreigners and international regimes.

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