ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how cultural narratives are built up and sustained in unequal power relationships using communication and anthropological tools to study international finance, taxation and the legal regulations that enable elites around the world to use the Cayman Islands financial industry. It provides a more intimate understanding of the Cayman Islands as an international financial community through ethnographic fieldwork based on interviews, experience of several local financial industry conferences, and day-to-day observations of island life in the Cayman Islands. The chapter describes the relationship between expatriate and local populations in the context of an offshore financial centre. It focuses on the experience of communication and integration of individuals to the Cayman Islands in order to understand how norms and values are imported, reproduced and modified there. In a comprehensive history of the Cayman Islands, historian M. Craton describes the reputation of Caymanian seafarers as some of the finest and most sought-after sailors in the Caribbean.
