ABSTRACT
Across the Caribbean archipelago, migration has been one of the most significant forces defining and shaping its island societies. The movements of Amerindian settlement across the region were transformed from the sixteenth century by European colonisation and the forced migration of enslaved Africans (see Chapter Eight). The abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century was followed by new waves of indentured immigrants from Asia, Africa and Europe. These population movements have not only made the Caribbean a unique intersection of diasporas, but have also entwined its heterogeneous communities with each other. Migration has therefore been both a unifying force in the region – with movements of peoples extending across political or linguistic borders – as well as exacerbating the diversity within each society.
