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Abstract
This article investigates the ways in which second- and third-generation young people of Caribbean descent in Britain engage in processes of constructing ethnic identity, and the ways in which they utilize family and kinship networks and relationships. The article begins by reviewing some of the key ideas of social capital and the inter-relationship between social capital and ethnicity. It then provides descriptive accounts of the young people's views concerning the particular ways their transnational family/kin relationships influence ethnic identity formation. I suggest that Caribbean young people's participation in transnational family and kinship events and celebrations encourages them to be part of globally dispersed family networks. I then consider how their lives in multi-ethnic Britain influence them to ‘bridge’ into cross-ethnic networks developed through friendship and social relationships. This allows them to develop alternative models of ethnic identity that take into account local/regional identities and make connections with the black diaspora in the Caribbean and USA in defining group identity.
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Notes
1. For the purposes of the article I have collapsed the term ‘Caribbean’ into a singular cultural and ethnic group in order to represent: (1) the young people's ‘homogenising’ discourse on what it means to be ‘Caribbean’ and (2) official classifications systems in Britain – such as Britain Census 2001- which uses this term (alongside ‘African’ and ‘Black British’) in relation to the question of black people's ethnic origin. Of course in the Caribbean there are profound variations with regards to island and regional differences, as well as racial/ethnic, class and gender divisions.
2. A non-purposive method of sampling (snowballing) was used to select sample across these contrasting urban locations in the UK where there is a high pattern of Caribbean settlement. In London interviews took place with 25 family members), in Birmingham and Manchester I interviewed 10 family members in each of these areas and in Nottingham interviews took place with 5 family members.
3. These countries also present an interesting contrast in terms of ethnic composition of the population. While Barbados is more or less mono-ethnic, comprising people of African descent, both Jamaica and Guyana are ethnically mixed. For example, 51% of population of Guyana originate from Indian sub-continent, African descendants are the second largest group and there exist small but substantial proportion of Amerindians, Syrians and Madeirans. In Jamaica people come from backgrounds as ethnically diverse as Africa, Europe, and South East Asia, China.
4. Woolcock (Citation1998) adds a third dimension to Putnam's work: ‘linking’ social capital. This examines social capital capacity for developing relationships and networks of trust and reciprocity that allow individuals to access and link across different formal and informal resources.
5. For example, many of the Jamaican migrants to the UK in the post war era primarily came from a rural, working-class background. This contrasts to migrants from Guyana who predominately came from professional, educated, urban background (Alleyne, Citation2002).
6. For example, in October 2002 the Cultural Archives, based in south London, organized an exhibition by second- and third-generation Caribbean young people. This work used cultural signifiers to establish a visual documentation of the significance of the ‘Caribbean Sunday dinner’; the ‘Caribbean front room’ and the ‘Caribbean Barber shop’. Of particular interest is the fact that these young people took aspects of their everyday lives to reaffirm a Caribbean ethnic identity.