Identity and community: Four Carribeans on life in the UK

The concept and idea of dual identity and balancing between British and Caribbean lifestyles is one that is exceptionally individualistic and complicated. No two people will ever live out the same life experiences, but within the diaspora, there will be some shared experiences and common threads. I interviewed a group of four first and second-generation Caribbean immigrants about their identity and experiences living in the UK.

Names have been edited for privacy.

What does being Caribbean mean to you?

Izzie: Freedom and family.

Sherline: Shared ideals and values

Janice: Community. It's about coming together, hearing and helping each other out and that kind of stuff. That's what being Caribbean is like. 

Sean: It's about having a sense of purpose. Having knowledge that my forefathers had a really big impact on not just my life, but in shaping the world. Britain wouldn't be Britain without us.

Do you feel like the UK is your home?

Izzie: I did before all the austerity. It felt like home before the government started taking money out of all the things that made me feel like this was my home. I think my problem with the UK is, that you grow up here, you benefit from the system, you feel like you're a part of the system to a point and then they start rejecting you. We all understand what a chippy is. We all watch X Factor. But then you get to a point where you don't feel like you have access to all the things you grew up thinking you would have access to because you were born here because you're black. And you're like, wait a minute, that wasn't a problem before? You have to think about what it is about the UK that makes you say, I am English or British. 

Sherline: It's hard because my home isn't in Barbados because I don't live there. But my home is more Barbados than it is here. If I could move my household, all my relatives and work I have in England, and the way I live in England there, then it would be perfect.

Janice: Kind of yeah. But I guess it's where you feel like you stick, when I went back to Barbados the other day, I thought to myself “Maybe you don't fit here”

Sean: I feel it’s home, but not my first home. Barbados will always be my first home, whereas the UK is more of a stepping stone. So that I can have a more comfortable home back in Barbados.

Do you feel that there is a sense of community for Caribbean people here?

Janice: Definitely. I can't find any Caribbean community here. 

Sherline: Unless you're my age and you hang out with old people that keep trying to have community events and cricket meets, then you think there's a sense of community. But young people don't come.So people aren't gonna carry that on. 

Izzie: I feel like it's because the young people are second or third-generation immigrants that have never touched their islands. So then there's nobody going to carry it on is there? I think people take it for granted. At uni, I was finally finding other Caribbean people, but a lot of them hadn't actually been to their islands. They don't know what that's like. They haven't had their parents playing the music from back home. They have to discover themselves and they come to it a bit later than others.

Sean: Yes and no. I feel like you only see real communities in certain nations, and there can be a division between others. For example, you always find Jamaican communities are separate from other people in the Caribbean. But there are times when we do get together. 

Do you think other communities such as African communities have a better sense of community compared to us?

Sherline: Definitely. They even support each other's businesses harder than us. They boost each other more than we do. Carribeans just go “Oh that's nice” and move on.

Izzie: It's important to remember that Caribbeans came here years ago, not that Africans didn't, but they [African communities] come here with their established education and money usually already sorted. Whereas we didn't come with wealth. We've been here for a couple more decades being battered and beaten by the system that divides and conquers, so we're divided and it's harder for us I think. 

Sean: I think that it's probably because a lot of the African communities are more first or second-generation immigrants, whereas Caribbean communities now are third or fourth-generation. But now you've got more first and second-generation Africans there, they're more prevalent. They still have a strong original culture and original feelings with them.

What do you think the younger generation should be doing to foster more collaborative efforts and a stronger sense of community?

Izzie: We need to want to connect more with the culture, and not just accept what the UK shows them is their culture. You can't accept in the club when those play five Jamaican songs that that's your culture. Go and find out what genre your island has native to it. I don't know if I've seen that curiosity from our generation.

Janice: It's about education, too, isn't it, right? Again, going into your homeland, and actually wanting to know about it and experiencing Carnival and these kinds of things. And not letting older generations bad mouth it and change your mind about it. We end up blending in and not finding out what our culture is really about. I made it a thing that my daughter knows the Bajan dialect. I said "There's no way you're gonna have Bajan parents and not know the Bajan dialect. 

Sherline: I feel like outside of Jamaican descendants, people here don't really know what it is to be Caribbean. I feel like people feel ashamed. So it's easier to be like, "Yeah mon, wha blood, wagwan" and present Jamaican instead of claiming your own country. And then, like, in schools and stuff when people are being weird, it's more cool to be like, yeah, I'm African. Yeah, I love these Afrobbeats. Yeah, I love this thing. Instead of saying actually, have you heard of Machel Montano or Patrice? How is it that Machel has been so big for so long, but he's never commanded the kind of dollar signs or the concerts that you see with Burna Boy? Either people maybe they don't know or they just don't support their own culture because it's easier to blend in and subscribe to other people's interests. 

Sean: Young people need to do what our parents used to do. They need to try to tap into those sorts of networks that they had. Simple things like boosting and supporting Caribbean establishments is where you're going to find these people. We love going to eat Indian food and Chinese food but we never really think about going to Caribbean establishments. 

Izzie: People need to stop erasing the whole Caribbean culture. You'll tell people you're Caribbean and they'll say “Oh but we're all technically African” but the thing is that not all of the Caribbean is black. People can't conceptualise that there are white Jamaicans, Asian Jamaicans, Indian Caribbeans, and then there are people of all types who don't even speak English.