The Impact of 9/11 on Migration Relations Between the Caribbean and the United States

• Author: Christopher Mitchell
• Pages: 350-370

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Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror

The Impact of 9/11 on Migration

Relations Between the Caribbean

and the United States

Christopher Mitchell

Introduction

During the past 50 years, northward migration has become a major

social, economic, and political link between the Caribbean and the United

States.1 Millions of persons from all corners of the Caribbean region reside

in the US, and many maintain diverse ties with their societies of origin. A

rich process of cultural exchange and interaction often connects migrants

with island societies, and remittances from emigrants are a major component

in Caribbean nations’ international payments. Caribbean people in US cities

such as New York and Miami often play significant roles in politics ‘at

home’, and they may also exert influence over United States policy towards

Cuba, Haiti, and other nations.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (hereafter 9/11) affected US-

Caribbean migration relations in diverse ways. In effect, one multi-faceted

and crucial event exerted a complex impact upon a social, economic and

political process that has become deeply interwoven into a score of nations

surrounding the Caribbean basin. The patterns produced by that impact are

far from simple, varying significantly in complexity depending on the specific

societies concerned. This chapter will seek to analyze these patterns, reviewing

available evidence on policy changes, legal immigration, unauthorised

population movement, remittances, migrants’ changing status in the United

States, and other subjects. The diplomacy of Caribbean migration will also

occupy our attention as we note that some existing points of stress between

governments have been re-emphasised, while some new ones have been added.

In a larger sense, beyond the ongoing migration processes that have

been inflected (perhaps with long-range consequences), we also will suggest

that 9/11 may result in a limited recasting of migration relations between the

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The Impact of 9/11 on Migration Relations

Caribbean and the United States. Security priorities – defined as anti-terrorism

– now tend to dominate Washington’s assessment of Caribbean migration

issues. Previous trends in regional migration policy, tending to bring concerns

about development, democracy, and transnational social linkages to the

foreground, have lost momentum. A long-standing tendency towards defining

migration as a subject of bilateral relations, rather than a theme for

multilateral bargaining, has simultaneously been strengthened.

This chapter will begin by describing briefly the Caribbean migrant

communities in the United States, and the complexity of the links they have

forged with island societies. We will then review the policy changes and

legislative revisions affecting migration that were put into place by the United

States in the aftermath of 9/11. Most of these were rooted in global concerns

or goals, but (in a sequence of events familiar to any student of past events)

they have appreciably influenced Caribbean interests. The work will then

review changes in legal population movement, sea-borne migration, financial

flows, and the granting of visas and long-term residency to Caribbean

emigrants.

In this sometimes-intricate data, we will note some signs of a stronger

commitment among migrants to maintain linkages to home societies, even

as – perhaps because – access to and secure status within the United States

have become somewhat less certain. We will then assess several current points

of political stress over migration between Washington and Caribbean nations,

focusing on Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. The paper will

conclude by examining the longer-term effects of anti-terrorist security priorities

on the diplomacy of migration in the Western Hemisphere, including the

Caribbean.

Changes in Migration Patterns and Policy Following 9/11

Table 14.1 provides insight into the size and diversity of the Caribbean

migrant population in the US in the year preceding the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Even the numbers estimated by the US Bureau of the Census – equivalent to

nearly eight per cent of the total population then living in the Caribbean

itself – understates the political and social weight of the migrant population

since it does not include their offspring born in the US. Viewing the matter

more broadly, simply counting Caribbean-born residents and their families,

as though most had made a once-and-for-all northward move, provides only

a minimal first suggestion of Caribbean migration’s nature and impact.

Complex interactions very often link migrants from the region with the

societies from which they came. Travel in both directions is very active,