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This article will assess the diasporic experiences and adjustment of Indo-Trinidadian immigrants during the post-independence era. It will be based on interviews with Indo-Trinidadians residing in Canada, the United States (US), and England. Displaced Indo-Trinidadians residing in North America and the United Kingdom (UK) were challenged to define themselves in relation to Afro-Caribbean and Asian Indian immigrants. And in the general literature on the subject, migration scholars such as Roy Bryce-Laporte and Delores Mortimer (1976), Nancy Foner (1985, 1998), Barry Levine (1987), Frank Birbalsingh (1989, 1997), Ransford Palmer (1990), and Mary Chamberlain (1997, 1998) collated the experiences of the Caribbean diaspora in North America and Europe.
The majority of the Indo-Trinidadian immigrant population had been either directly or indirectly affected by the epoch-making events of the 1960s and 1970s involving decolonisation and the rise of 'Black Power'. In the Caribbean, this era of change was characterised by social upheavals and cataclysmic political change. The transfer of economic and political power into the hands of the Afro-Caribbean majority contributed to strained racial relations in, especially, Guyana and Trinidad, both countries hosting relatively large populations of Indian extraction. As a result, thousands of Indians from Guyana and Trinidad flocked to the US and Canada to escape racism in their adopted homelands, many claiming to be political refugees and seeking asylum. Currently, it is estimated that there are more than 120 000 Indo- Trinidadians in the US; and every year, 8 000 to 10 000 more are expected to migrate to the north.
During the late 1960s and 1970s an overwhelming majority of Indo- Trinidadians were absorbed into the then expanding Canadian economy. They were reluctantly welcomed into Canada, despite there being a need for skilled labour, especially artisans like electricians, plumbers, and carpenters. However, many of these migrants did not realise that Canada was not colour-blind, and that racism was deeply entrenched in Canadian society. Indeed, the racial bogeyman accompanied West Indian immigrants to whichever country they chose as their new homeland.
A noteworthy percentage of Indo-Caribbean immigrants arrived in England during the Caribbean influx into the UK during the 1960s. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of statistics on the actual number of Indo-Caribbeans, in general, and Indo- Trinidadians, in particular, who leftthe West Indies. It is...