ABSTRACT
For Caribbeans in Britain and France, residence has been largely an urban experience. Employment opportunities offered to migrants in the 1950s and 1960s were located in the largest cities and family networks generated a permanency in settlement patterns, with increasing concentrations in some areas. In a similar way as for the thousands of migrants arriving in the cities from Europe and Africa, or those arriving from the rural areas of France and Britain, there was a stark contrast between the living environment in the cities and those from which they had migrated. The density of housing blocks, streets fi lled with traffi c, shops, factories and workshops, and modern transport systems were largely alien to them as was the confi ned nature of dwellings and the lack of outside space for family or common use. For several months or years, rooms or small fl ats would shape the space within which domestic duties were carried out, roles distributed, family or couple relationships played out, problems solved, and decisions taken. The lodgings secured initially in British and French cities were not always modern by comparison with homes in the Caribbean and were rarely comfortable. Not only damp and cold, they could be also cramped and lacking in a private bathroom or inside toilet. Furthermore, all household activities had to be performed inside the dwelling. Lack of privacy was another hardship that had to be endured, especially when new migrants spent several weeks with relatives in already crowded homes.
