"Creatively drawing on documentary sources and oral histories, Tinker offers invaluable insights into the social, political, and economic forces that have helped shape the history of West Indian migrations to the Bahamas--a country that has often been overlooked in Caribbean migration studies."--Frederick H. Smith, author of Caribbean Rum

Although the Bahamas is geographically part of the West Indies, its population has consistently rejected attempts to link Bahamian national identity to the histories of its poorer Caribbean neighbors. The result of this attitude has been that the impact of Barbadians, Guyanese, Haitians, Jamaicans, and Turks and Caicos islanders living in the Bahamas has remained virtually unstudied.

In this timely volume, Keith Tinker explores the flow of peoples to and from the Bahamas and assesses the impact of various migrant groups on the character of the islands’ society and identity. He analyzes the phenomenon of "West Indian elitism" and reveals an intriguing picture of how immigrants--both documented and undocumented--have shaped the Bahamas from the pre-Columbian period to the present.

The result is the most complete and comprehensive study of migration to the Bahamas, a work that reminds us that Caribbean migration is about more than just the people who leave the islands for the continents of North America and Europe.

Keith L. Tinker, a native Bahamian, is director of the National Museum of the Bahamas and adjunct professor of Caribbean history at the College of the Bahamas.

Sample Chapter(s):

Table of Contents

Excerpt

Makes a significant contribution to Bahamian historiography on migration by extending the discussion on patterns of West Indian migration to the Bahamas.
--Florida Historical Quarterly

The greatest strength of this work comes from the source material, particularly the series of oral history interviews the author conducted with migrants who came to the Bahamas from other West Indian islands.
--African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

Collates everything we need to know about regional migration to the Bahamas--from prehistoric times to the present.
--New Black Magazine