This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2021) |
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Jamaica | 75,000[ citation needed ] |
Dominican Republic | 60,000[ citation needed ] |
Cuba | 41,000[ citation needed ] |
French Guiana | 15,000[ citation needed ] |
Belize | 10,000[ citation needed ] |
Suriname | 7,885 [1] |
Trinidad and Tobago | 3,984 [2] |
Puerto Rico | 3,000[ citation needed ] |
Guyana | 2,722 [3] |
Curaçao | 1,600[ citation needed ] |
Languages | |
Colonial Languages: Chinese Varieties: | |
Religion | |
| |
Related ethnic groups | |
Overseas Chinese, Asian Caribbeans |
Chinese Caribbean people (sometimes Sino-Caribbean people ) are people who are predominantly of Han Chinese ethnic origin living in the Caribbean. There are small but significant populations of Chinese and their descendants in all countries of the Greater Antilles. They are all part of the large Chinese diaspora known as Overseas Chinese.
Caribbean Islands:
Mainland Caribbean:
Between 1853 and 1879, 14,000 Chinese indentured servants were imported to the British Caribbean as part of a larger system of low-wage labor bound for the sugar plantations. Imported as a low-wage labor force from China, Chinese settled in three main locations: Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana (now Guyana), initially working on the sugar plantations. Most of the Chinese workers initially went to British Guiana; however when importation ended in 1879, the population declined steadily, mostly due to emigration to Trinidad and Suriname. [4]
Chinese immigration to Cuba started in 1847 when Cantonese low-wage workers were brought to work in the sugar fields, bringing their native Chinese folk religion with them. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese were brought in from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and / or work alongside African slaves. After obtaining their freedom, some descendants of Chinese indentrued servants settled permanently in Cuba, although most longed for repatriation to their homeland. When the United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 6, 1882, many Chinese in the United States fled to Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American nations. They established small niches and worked in restaurants and laundries. [5]
The Chinese indentured servants who entered the British West Indies in the middle and late nineteenth century formed a marginal but distinct part of the global dispersal of southern Chinese characteristics of the period. [6] Next to those in the United States, on the one hand, and in Cuba and Peru, on the other, they formed the third largest regional grouping of Chinese arrivals to the Western Hemisphere in the mid-century. About 15,000 [6] arrived in British Guiana, with just under 3,000 going to Trinidad and Jamaica, to work as indentured laborers in the sugar industry. [6]
Although the patterns of their entry into these new societies represented a microcosmic version of the story of the Chinese diaspora in the nineteenth century, there were a number of note-worthy distinctive traits attached to this regional experience.
The bulk of Chinese coolies migration to the West Indies occurred between 1853 and 1866. [7] By the end of the nineteenth century, some 18,000 [6] Chinese would arrive in the West Indies, with the vast majority of those workers headed for Guyana. [7] As was the case with most migration out of China in the nineteenth century, the workers were drawn from southern China and were seeking to escape desperate conditions caused by a combination of environmental catastrophes and political unrest.
There were also a considerable number of Christian converts among the Chinese migrants as a result of the colonial government's willingness to rely on Christian missionaries to assist them in their recruitment endeavors, particularly in the recruiting of family units. [7] The use of Christian missionaries in recruitment [7] was just one of many measures that the colonial government used in its venture to avoid accusations that indenture was simply another form of slavery. [7] The government was particularly sensitive to such accusations because it was competing directly with other European powers, particularly Spain, to recruit low-wage laborers from China. [6] The recruitment of the Chinese was generally conducted by professional recruiters, known as "crimps", who were paid per individual recruit, while the recruits themselves received a cash advance. In the 1850s, the demand for Chinese workers and the fees paid to the crimps increased so dramatically [6] that the system quickly became notorious for its association with abuse and coercion, including kidnapping. [7] The system was said to be known as "the sale of Little Pigs", [7] alluding to the inhumane treatment migrants often faced.
The exposure of this inhumane system led to a series of ordinances being passed which, despite not directly enhancing the state of indentured Chinese, eventually played a key role in ending Chinese exploitation in the West Indies. [7] In 1866, the Kung Convention signed in China, but never ratified by Britain, specifically provided back passage for the Chinese workers. [8] West Indian planters were not, however, prepared to cover the additional cost that this would incur, especially in light of the fact that India was proving more than sufficient as a source of coolie. After the Chinese government refused to back down on the provision, interest in the Chinese Caribbean people as coolies seems to have simply faded. [8]
The manner in which the colonial powers introduced Chinese into the West Indies and the socioeconomic roles that they afforded [6] to the migrants would directly affect how the Caribbean Chinese people were imagined and represented in colonial discourse in terms of where they belonged in the West Indies' social, economic and political landscapes. [6]
The Caribbean Chinese people in literature, particularly, were regarded as either valuable additions to the multicultural mosaic of the Caribbean, or an entry into the problematic multiculturalism that existed in the region. George Lamming, for example, in his work Of Age and Innocence and Wilson Harris in The Whole Armour explored the Chinese character through the lens of the former. More often than not, the Caribbean Chinese people are presented as peripheral figures in stereotypical roles, as inscrutable or clever or linguistically deficient rural shopkeepers, preoccupied with money and profit. Such characters appear in the novels of Samuel Selvon, Michael Anthony, V.S. Naipaul, and even in the short stories of the Chinese Trinidadian Willi Chen.
The distance from other Caribbean people that is attributed to Chinese [7] in literary texts also manifests itself in the depiction of the Chinese as being a fundamentally alien presence in the West Indies. [8] Indeed, Chinese characters are sometimes depicted as the only individuals who can see the larger themes and issues within the West Indian experience because of their purported distance from them. [7] This can be seen in novels such as Pan Beat by Marion Patrick Jones, Mr. On Loong by Robert Standish, and The Pagoda by Patricia Powell. [7]
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This article is about the demography of the population of Trinidad and Tobago including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Coolie is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers, typically those of Indian or Chinese descent.
Samuel L. Manning was a Trinidadian performer and songwriter who was one of the earliest calypsonians to achieve international acclaim.
Indo-Caribbean people or Indian-Caribbean people are people in the Caribbean who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. They are descendants of the Jahaji indentured laborers from British India, who were brought by the British, Dutch, and French during the colonial era from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. A minority of them are descendants from people who immigrated as entrepreneurs, businesspeople, merchants, engineers, doctors, religious leaders, students, and other professional occupations beginning in the mid-20th century.
Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians or Indian-Trinidadians and Tobagonians are people of Indian origin who are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, whose ancestors came from India and the wider subcontinent beginning in 1845 during the period of colonization.
Dougla people are Caribbean people who are of mixed African and Indian descent. The word Dougla is used throughout the Dutch and English-speaking Caribbean. Afro-Indo people may also be another term used to describe them.
Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are Guyanese nationals of Indian origin who trace their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginning in 1838, and continuing during the British Raj.
The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers from British India were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labor, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted till the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean, Natal, East Africa, Réunion, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean, Indo-African, Indo-Mauritian, Indo-Fijian, Indo-Malaysian, and Indo-Singaporean populations.
Chindian ; is an informal term used to refer to a person of mixed Chinese and Indian ancestry; i.e. from any of the host of ethnic groups native to modern China and India. There are a considerable number of Chindians in Malaysia and Singapore. In Maritime Southeast Asia, people of Chinese and Indian origin immigrated in large numbers during the 19th and 20th centuries. There are also a sizeable number living in Hong Kong and smaller numbers in other countries with large overseas Chinese and Indian diaspora, such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname and Guyana in the Caribbean, as well as in Indonesia, the Philippines, the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Indo-Jamaicans are the descendants of people who came from India and the wider subcontinent to Jamaica. Indians form the third largest ethnic group in Jamaica after Africans and Multiracials.
Trinidadian and Tobagonian Americans are people with Trinidadian and Tobagonian ancestry or immigrants who were born in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a result, people of Trinidadian and Tobagonian descent do not equate their nationality with ethnicity. The largest proportion of Trinidadians lives in the New York metropolitan area, with other large communities located in South Florida, Central Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, Minnesota, Georgia, and Massachusetts. There are more than 223,639 Trinbagonian Americans living in the United States.
Chinese Trinidadians and Tobagonians are Trinidadians and Tobagonians of Han Chinese ancestry. The group includes people from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Overseas Chinese who have immigrated to Trinidad and Tobago and their descendants, including those who have emigrated to other countries. The term is usually applied both to people of mixed and unmixed Chinese ancestry, although the former usually appear as mixed race in census figures. Chinese settlement began in 1806. Between 1853 and 1866 2,645 Chinese immigrants arrived in Trinidad as indentured labour for the sugar and cacao plantations. Immigration peaked in the first half of the twentieth century, but was dramatically lowered after the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949. After peaking at 8,361 in 1960, the unmixed Chinese population in Trinidad declined to 3,800 in 2000, however slightly increased to 3,984 in 2011.
The first numbers of Chinese arrived in British Guiana in 1853, forming an important minority of the indentured workforce. After their indenture, many who stayed on in Guyana came to be known as successful retailers, with considerable integration with the local culture. The most notable person of Chinese ancestry was the Former Guyana President Arthur Chung, was independent Guyana's first President from 1970 to 1980, and the first Chinese head of state of a non-Asian country.
Rampersad, also spelt Ramprasad or Rampersaud, is a surname common in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, the Caribbean, Fiji, South Africa, and Mauritius. The name is common among Caribbean Hindus, but also among others as a result of ethnic mixing. It is also common among many Christians as well. Many people of this surname have migrated to the United States and Canada as well. Sundar Popo wrote a song called Rampersad.
Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a result, Trinidadians do not equate their nationality with race and ethnicity, but with citizenship, identification with the islands as whole, or either Trinidad or Tobago specifically. Although citizens make up the majority of Trinidadians, there is a substantial number of Trinidadian expatriates, dual citizens and descendants living worldwide, chiefly elsewhere in the Anglosphere.
The Indian community in Saint Kitts and Nevis is made up of Indo-Kittitians, Indo-Nevisians, non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin. Indo-Kittitians and Indo-Nevisians are nationals of Saint Kitts and Nevis whose ancestry lies within the country of India. The community originated from the Indian indentured workers brought to Saint Kitts and Nevis by the British in 1861 and 1874 respectively. By 1884, most of the community had emigrated to Caribbean nations with larger Indian populations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname.
The Indian community in the United States Virgin Islands is made up of Indo-Caribbeans, Indian Americans and other persons of Indian origin. The first Indians in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) arrived in the Danish colony of Saint Croix in June 1863 as indentured workers. However, the nearly all 325 Indians who came to Saint Croix left the island by the 1870s. Nearly two-thirds returned to India, while the others emigrated to Trinidad and Tobago. Some settled in that country, while others returned to India from Trinidad.
Hinduism in Guyana is the religion of about 31% of the population in 2020. This makes Guyana the country with the highest percentage of Hindu residents in the Western Hemisphere.
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