Jamaicans in Broward County, Florida

This chapter has answered a call to compare places of significant West Indian populations with New York City. The literature on the City's West Indians, especially Jamaicans, provides a basis of comparison in a variety of ways, including elements of their ethnicity and its expression as cultural landscape, their SES and occupational structure, neighborhood settlement patterns, and associations with African Americans. Broward County has become an emerging cultural center for West Indians, particularly Jamaicans, and provides a good comparison. Migration and immigration continue to fuel the growth of its Black population, which is led by Jamaicans. Broward County is now a stronger destination for foreign-born Blacks than Miami-Dade. Further, during the 1995-2000 years, Broward realized a net increase of Black foreign-born migrants, while Miami-Dade showed a net loss due to migration. Those Blacks entering Broward County had better SES than those departing the County for Miami-Dade. Since that period, Broward's Black population, fueled by Black Caribbean immigration, has continued to grow and it has become a minority-majority county. This chapter demonstrates both similarities and differences between New York City's West Indians, especially Jamaicans, and those residing in Broward County, Florida. As in New York, ethnicity is strong among West Indians (and Jamaicans) in Broward County and is expressed in many ways, including as a unique cultural landscape. Regarding SES, West Indians, and Jamaicans alone, have better SES than native Blacks but are somewhat less well off than Latinos, and have lower SES than non-Hispanic Whites. However, as in New York City, Jamaicans stand apart from all but the White group in terms of having a high home ownership rate in Broward County. Regarding occupational structure, Jamaicans are relatively evenly distributed within three major categories, Managerial-Professional- Related Financial, Services, and Sales and Office. Another 21 percent of Jamaican occupations were in the two major categories of Construction- Maintenance and Transportation-Material Handling. This distribution illustrates a diverse Jamaican labor force, despite some concentrations in specific subcategories such as health professional and heath services. Further, women were more likely to be in nursing and men were more likely to be in other categories, such as maintenance and transportation subcategories. Thus, some similarities, such as health professionals and nursing, appear to be comparable to occupational structure of Jamaicans in New York City. Others do not, such as males in transportation in New York are highly represented in private transit (taxis, jitneys), whereas in Broward County they are employed in material handling and production occupations. A triple layering settlement pattern has been reported for West Indian ethnic groups for decades. This concept has merit in Broward County but does not alone adequately describe the settlement pattern of Jamaicans, who have also settled in predominantly White, middle- and upper-middle income neighborhoods in Broward's western municipalities. Clearly, not all West Indians "prefer" to live in Black neighborhoods. Heterolocalism is the process of dispersed settlement while maintaining strong ethnicity. This, too, describes some professional Jamaican settlements in Broward County. Finally, the ideas of ethnic "distancing" and periodic ethnic conflict present in New York City between West Indians and African Americans also seems to apply at this time in Broward County. What remains unanswered is whether or not West Indian settlement in the majority-White suburbs will continue and reach a tipping point that will lead to White flight as it has in other communities, including New York. Or, will class (SES) overcome prejudice? Only time will tell.