Jamaican diaspora

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The Jamaican diaspora refers to Jamaicans who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such Jamaicans, and the ensuing developments in their culture.

The Jamaican diaspora exists in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other Caribbean islands, but Jamaicans can be found in even the far corners of the world.

Over the past several decades, close to a million^{[citation needed]} Jamaicans have emigrated, especially to the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. This emigration appears to have been tapering off somewhat in recent years, however the great number of Jamaicans living abroad has become known as the "Jamaican diaspora". Due to Commonwealth law and Jamaica's history with Great Britain, most Jamaican emigrants have followed a path first to the UK, and then if they do not remain in the UK, on to other Commonwealth countries such as Canada. Today that trend has changed with more Jamaican emigrants going directly to the United States, Canada, other Caribbean nations, Central & South America (mainly in Brazil), and even Africa (most notably Egypt and Ethiopia) without having to pass through the UK first. There has also been emigration of Jamaicans to Cuba and Nicaragua where they represent 9% of the population. ^[1]

Concentrations of expatriate Jamaicans are large in a number of cities in the United States, including New York City, Buffalo, the Miami metro area, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, Washington, D.C, Philadelphia, Hartford, Managua, Nicaragua and Los Angeles. In Canada, the Jamaican population is centred in Toronto, and there are smaller communities in cities such as Montreal and Ottawa. In the United Kingdom, Jamaican communities exist in most large cities where they make up the larger part of the British-Caribbean community.

The United Kingdom has a much higher percentage of Jamaicans than Canada and the United States, however population wise, the UK and USA are pretty much equal.^{[citation needed]} An overwhelming amount of Jamaican Americans reside in New York City, whilst Jamaican Britons are much more widespread across the UK.^{[citation needed]}

New York City is home to a large Jamaican diaspora community, with communities along Flatbush, Nostrand and Utica Avenues in Brooklyn—centred around the neighbourhoods of Prospect Heights, Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Canarsie, and Flatlands. The Bronx, neighbourhoods such as Wakefield, Eastchester, Baychester, Queens, Westchester County and nearby Stamford, Connecticut also have significant Jamaican ex-pat communities. Flatbush, Nostrand, and Utica Avenues feature miles of Jamaican cuisine, food markets & other businesses, nightlife and residential enclaves.

In Toronto, the Jamaican community is also large. Caribbean areas of the city are located in parts of Rexdale, Scarborough, Jane and Finch, Lawrence Heights, Weston, sections of Downtown Toronto and York, which also includes a Little Jamaica neighbourhood that is identifiable along Eglinton Avenue West. Though in recent times most Jamaicans have been moving out to suburbs such as Mississauga and Brampton(Brampton alone has over 10% of the Jamaican-Canadian population). The Jamaican community has had an influence on Toronto's culture. Caribana (the celebration of Caribbean culture) is an annual event in the city. Jamaica Day is in July and the Jesus in the City Parade attracts many Jamaican Christians. This festival is held downtown every September, shutting down Yonge Street - the busiest main street in Downtown Toronto. Reggae and dancehall are popular among Toronto's youth.

London has a strong Jamaican diaspora. An estimated 7% of Londoners are of Jamaican heritage. Many are now at least second-, if not third- or fourth-generation Black British Caribbeans. Also a further 2% of people in London are of mixed Jamaican and British origin, the largest mixed-race group of the country and the fastest-growing.

One of the largest and most famous Jamaican expatriate communities is in Brixton, South London. More large Jamaican communities in London are Tottenham and Hackney in North London, Harlesden in North-West London, and Lewisham in South-East London. The highest concentration of Jamaicans are in the Inner-city South London boroughs.

On the last bank holiday of the year during late August the Annual Notting Hill Carnival takes place in West London which is the second biggest street party in the world after Rio Carnival. It spans areas of West London such as Shepherd's Bush, Ladbroke Grove, White City and of course Notting Hill. Many other Caribbean nations have large communities in this part of London such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Antigua. The Caribbean community including many Jamaicans are involved in the Carnival which starts on Saturday and finishes late on Monday. Jamaicans have many food stalls, soundsystems and floats involved in the procession. Well over a million londoners come to Notting Hill on the Monday. There is also a much smaller carnival called the Tottenham Carnival which takes place in Tottenham during June, approximately 40,000 people attend.

Other Jamaican communities include the areas of St Pauls in Bristol, Chapeltown in Leeds, Moss Side, Longsight and Hulme in Manchester, Toxteth in Liverpool,Burngreave in Sheffield, Handsworth, Lozells, and Aston in Birmingham, and St Ann's, Nottingham. More recently many resort and wild-life management skilled Jamaicans have been trending emigration toward such far-flung nations as Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. The nation continues to have a severe problem with barrel children--those left on their own by parents seeking a better life abroad.

[edit] Crime

Jamaican immigration in Toronto has come under scrutiny recently following a rash of cross-border crime and the Toronto police are investigating links between gang violence in Toronto and deadly clashes in Jamaica[1]. A further source of friction with other Torontonians is the perceived prevalence of Jamaican illegal immigration. The fall of 2002 stands out in particular when nine young men were killed in a series of shootings in Toronto. One of the suspects, who was later murdered, turned out to be a Jamaican who was living in Canada illegally.[2] The consequences of this immigration has often been deportations, costly to the Canadian taxpayer; Canada deports about 200 people back to Jamaica every year. In dozens of cases, the men and women are being sent back because they've been convicted of crimes.[3]