Jamaican Americans
Jamaican Americans are an ethnic group of Caribbean Americans who have full or partial Jamaican ancestry. The largest proportions of Jamaican Americans live in South Florida and New York City, both of which have been home to large Jamaican communities since the 1950s and 60s. There are also communities of Jamaican Americans residing in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, and California.[2]
The vast majority of Jamaican Americans are of black African-Caribbean descent, smaller numbers are of full or partial Indian Jamaican, Chinese Jamaican, European and Lebanese descent.
Historical immigration[edit]
After 1838, European colonies in the Caribbean with expanding sugar industries imported large numbers of immigrants to meet their acute labor shortage. Large numbers of Jamaicans were recruited to work in Panama and Costa Rica in the 1850s. After slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, American planters imported temporary workers, called "swallow migrants", to harvest crops on an annual basis. These workers, many of them Jamaicans, returned to their countries after harvest. Between 1881 and the beginning of World War I, the United States recruited over 250,000 workers from the Caribbean, 90,000 of whom were Jamaicans, to work on the Panama Canal.[3][4] During both world wars, the United States again recruited Jamaican men for service on various American bases in the region.
Socioeconomics[edit]
Age and English proficiency[edit]
In 2014, the median age of Caribbean immigrants was 48 years, compared to 44 years for the general immigrant average. The median age of Jamaican immigrants was 49 years old. According to the Migration Policy Institute's tabulation of census data, 6% of Caribbean immigrants were under the age of 18, 76% between the ages of 18 and 64, and 19% were 65 and older.[15]
In 2019, the median age of Jamaican Americans was 37 years old (U.S. Census Bureau 2019).
Caribbean immigrants are more likely to be proficient in English compared to the general immigrant population. In 2017, only 2% of Jamaicans were Limited English Proficient (LEP).[16] By 2019, the figure had reduced to just 0.9% of Jamaicans who were LEP (U.S. Census Bureau 2019).
Education and employment[edit]
Caribbean immigrants perform better than the general immigrant population in terms of high school graduation rates.[17]
In 2017, 24% of Jamaican immigrants had a bachelor's degree. This was higher than the Caribbean average of 21% (compared to 31% in the general immigrant population).[16]
In 2019, 30% of Jamaican Americans had a bachelor's degree. This is higher than the American average of 24.3% (U.S. Census Bureau 2019).
76% of Jamaican immigrants are working age (18 to 64). An estimated 30% of Caribbean immigrants are in the service occupations, 21% are in sales and office positions, and 25% are in management, business, science, and arts occupations and only 9% of Jamaican immigrants are in construction and maintenance jobs.[15] Jamaicans specifically, 32-37% seek management, business, science, and arts positions. According to the Migration Policy Institute, Jamaican immigrants to the United States consistently compose of a high share of skilled professionals. Caribbean immigrants tend to have a higher employment participation rate than the American average.[16]
Income[edit]
In 2014, the median Jamaican immigrant yearly income was $51,000 with a 13% poverty rate. The median Jamaican immigrant income is higher than the average Caribbean immigrant income, which was about $41,000 with a 20% poverty rate. According to World Bank data, in 2014, the Caribbean as a whole was sent $9.7 billion, 8% of the US GDP as remittances, not including Cuba, which is estimated to send $1.8 billion.[18]
In 2019, Jamaican Americans had a median household income of $62,044, higher than the American average of $57,761. Jamaican Americans had a poverty rate of 11.2%, lower than the American average of 12% (U.S. Census Bureau 2019).