Geopolitics, Economic Niches, and Gendered Social Capital among Recent Caribbean Immigrants in New York City

Abstract

This article examines the different socio-economic consequences of migration for Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Jamaicans and Haitians in the context of New York City. Migration outcomes are structured by a range of influences, including geopolitics, class selectivity, de-industrialization, ethnic niches and the timing of settlement. Emphasis is placed on the importance of variations in the household structures and gender strategies of these groups for understanding their different socioeconomic situations in the 1990s. Differences in the labor force participation patterns of the women in these communities and the employment traditions upon which they draw have significant consequences for the well-being of the five groups. These cases also question the common assumption that high rates of female headed-households inevitably lead to high rates of poverty, a pattern found among Dominicans and Puerto Ricans but not among Jamaicans and Haitians.