Post-Second World War Migration from Ireland and the Caribbean: A Comparative Perspective

Subject to the limited opportunities of small nations, the island of Ireland and the Caribbean islands have seen migration has a key feature of social history in the twentieth century. In the Anglophone Caribbean, not unlike Ireland, the cultural influences of Britain loomed large in the psyche of both the homeland and the diaspora. For both groups, London represented an important migrant entrepôt and the city witnessed significant waves of Irish and Caribbean migrants from the late nineteen-forties onward. Despite commonalities between Irish and Caribbean immigrants few scholars have attempted to compare their experiences in a cross-ethnic manner. This paper sets out a comparative agenda in examining postwar Ireland and the Anglophone Caribbean as the points of origin for these immigrants. It also seeks to compare the main features of the cohorts to reveal how Irish and Caribbean immigrants negotiated with the racial framework of postwar Britain. The goal is to unpack the impact of race on the immigrant experience by drawing on groups who share significant geo-political and cultural histories vis-à-vis their relationship with Britain as the metropolitan center of the Empire.