Collecting the Memories: Migrant Voices in the Barbadian-UK Migration Project

• Author: Marcia Burrowes
• Pages: 137-156

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COLLECTING THE MEMORIES

Collecting the Memories:

Migrant Voices in the Barbadian–UK Migration Project

MARCIA BURRROWES

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IntroductionIntroduction

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

This chapter presents some of the early findings of the Migration

Oral History project undertaken by the disciplines of History and

Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus,

Barbados. The project was initiated by the migrants themselves who wanted

their voices to be heard as they told their stories of migration. They felt

strongly that current research and publication on migration did not fully

speak to their experiences in the UK They named their project ‘The Journey’

as they sought to emphasise the continuum of the experience of departing

Barbados, living and working in the UK, and returning to their native

land. Their anxiety to capture these narratives was made all the more urgent

by the realization that many of them were retirees in the 70+ years age

group who had limited time left to share their experiences. Interviews

were conducted in Barbados with those individuals who had migrated to

the United Kingdom before 1970 and who had subsequently returned to

live on the island.1

Though the project itself cast a wide net of questions to capture all areas of

interest, this chapter places emphasis on responses that spoke to socio-cultural

issues, such as cultural practices and race relations. Attention will be paid to

the key areas that the migrants chose to highlight in their discourse, and

events that they especially remembered when they reflected on their lived

experience in the UK.

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FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN CARIBBEAN MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

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During the decade of the 1990s, many Barbadian migrants returned to

their native land after having lived and worked in the UK Seeing themselves

as Bajans2 returning home, they had to grapple with, among other things, the

designated label of being a Returning National. This form of identification

was perceived as alienating them from within the main embrace of the society.

These Barbadian migrants found themselves embroiled in a discourse which

dismissed their claims to a home within Barbados and to a sense of belonging

to the island.

On the other hand, during the thirty years or more of living within the

United Kingdom, these first generation migrants had used the name and

concept of Barbados as home not only as a mantra, but as a beacon in the

dark. Their understanding of being Barbadian gave them solace and meaning

within the space/s of their exile. And the majority had remained in touch

with home, whether through visits to the island, and/or by receiving visitors

from the island, and/or through the tangible contribution of remittances to

relatives and friends in Barbados. They saw themselves as Barbadian and

Barbados as home. As one respondent states:

The first time when I got on the plane and I knew I was coming back for

good. I felt really good. Sad in a sense, but I knew, well, that’s it. You feel bad

because you leaving your kids behind as such, but I knew I was coming back to

Barbados, some place that I always wanted to be any way. I didn’t know when

I was going to, but I always have a vision that if God gives me health and

whatever, I want to come back, so I just made it back and I thank God for that.

Having now returned they learnt that though they had kept up a spiritual

and real vision and vigil of home, the inhabitants on the island had not kept

a similar narrative of and for them. The majority of the populace had forgotten

them, or were uninformed about their experiences. Little or no attempt was

made to teach their history/ries in the schools and universities and there was

hardly any public discussion on migration, until they were seen to be arriving

as retirees in the 1990s. As a result, the perception held by some Barbadians

was that these returning nationals were upstarts, or even outlaws, returning

(or perhaps turning up from nowhere?) to claim the fruit of the land.