ABSTRACT
The connections can be seen in music and sports, in the millions of US citizens of Caribbean descent, and in migration patterns. Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans staff the schools and hospitals of Brooklyn while immigrants from other Caribbean islands stitch garments in sweatshops in mid-town Manhattan. Millions of North Americans flock to the beaches of the Caribbean each year as tourists. The US standard of living and very social fabric is linked to events in the Caribbean in other important ways. Geographical proximity has made the Caribbean attractive to drug smugglers and tax evaders as well as tourists. Caribbean economies, shaped by colonizing powers, remain highly dependent on international markets. In the process, Caribbean countries developed extremely open and highly vulnerable economies. The unequal distribution of assets and income has very profound social consequences which resonate more clearly in the Caribbean than in other settings.
