Asian Migration and Linguistic Presence
Parts I & II
General Aims
To examine the history of the migration of Asians to the Caribbean.
What did the slaves and the planters do when slavery was abolished and how did this affect interaction/language? How did the arrival of substitute labour from (largely) Asia affect the linguistic picture of the Caribbean?
To examine their mark on the linguistic situation on countries such as Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname (to a lesser extent Cuba).
Asian Migration -- Background
British Colonies at the time
Jamaica,
Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad, Guyana
Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana -- large territories Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada – small territories
Asian Migration --Background
Spanish
-
Cuba
Dutch
French
-
Suriname
Martinique, Guadeloupe
Some territories had no immigration
Haiti,
Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico & Barbados
Asian Migration -- Background
The Apprenticeship system ended in 1838.
Mass
exodus from the plantations on the larger islands (this will help to inform us why different colonies had different numbers of Asians).
shortage on larger plantations.
Labour
Asian Migration - Background
Marshall (in Beckles and Shepherd 1996) outlines three views of what Africans did upon emancipation.
They
were so horrified by slavery they left the plantations (where they could) and set up small villages in the interiors of territories (the Jamaican experience being the typical example)
Asian Migration - Background
In
general, they stayed on plantations but many left eventually when wages/working conditions did not prove favorable (typically Barbados) so acculturated to forced labour they vowed never to do arduous work of any type.
Africans
Asian Migration - Background
In Cuba abolition did...