Afro-Caribbean Immigrants and the Politics of Incorporation
Ethnicity, Exception, or Exit

This book considers the political behavior of Afro-Caribbean immigrants in New York City to answer a familiar but nagging question about American democracy: Does racism still complicate or limit the political integration patterns of racial minorities in the United States? With the arrival of unprecedented numbers of immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean over the last several decades, there is reason once again to consider this question. For the first time in its history, the country is confronting the challenge of incorporating a steady, substantial stream of non-white, non-European voluntary immigrants into the political system. Will racism make this process as difficult for these newcomers as it did for African Americans? The book concludes that discrimination does interfere with the immigrants’ adjustment to American political life. But their strategic options and political choices in the face of this challenge are unexpected ones, not anticipated by standard accounts in the political science literature. The book thus offers a fresh theoretical perspective on how foreign-born racial minorities adapt to the American political system.

Reuel R. Rogers is an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University. His general field of study is American politics, with interests in race, ethnicity, urban politics, immigration, political behavior, and African-American politics. He completed this book during a year-long fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Afro-Caribbean Immigrants
and the Politics of Incorporation

Ethnicity, Exception, or Exit

REUEL R. ROGERS
Northwestern University

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521859226

© Reuel R. Rogers 2006

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2006

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Rogers, Reuel Reuben, 1969–
Afro-Caribbean immigrants and the politics of incorporation : ethnicity, exception,
or exit / Reuel R. Rogers.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-85922-0 (hardback) – ISBN 0-521-67640-1 (pbk.)
1. Caribbean Americans – New York (State) – New York – Politics and government.
2. Caribbean Americans – New York (State) – New York – Ethnic identity.
3. Blacks – New York (State) – New York – Politics and government. 4. Blacks –
New York (State) – New York – Race identity. 5. Immigrants – New York (State) –
New York – Political activity. 6. Political participation – New York (State) – New York.
7. Ethnicity – Political aspects – New York (State) – New York. 8. Racism – Political
aspects – New York (State) – New York. 9. New York (N.Y.) – Race relations – Political
aspects. 10. New York (N.Y.) – Politics and government – 1951– . I. Title.
F128.9.C27R64    2006
323.196′07471 – dc22    2005023295

ISBN-13 978-0-521-85922-6 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-85922-0 hardback

ISBN-13 978-0-521-67640-3 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-67640-1 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for
the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such
Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

For my parents

Contents

Tables

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Though my name alone appears on the cover of this book, I could not have written it without the support of family, friends, colleagues, and several organizations. From the first field interview to the very last typescript sentence, I had considerable assistance in bringing it all together in the pages that follow. I am very happy to credit the great many sources of support, guidance, inspiration, and constructive criticism that helped me complete this book.

   First, I thank Michael Danielson, Jennifer Hochschild, and Tali Mendelberg, who all read early versions of the entire manuscript, offered incisive suggestions for improving it, and inspired me with their example, encouragement, and enthusiasm for this project. My sincere thanks as well to Cathy Cohen, Nancy Foner, Michael Jones-Correa, Jane Junn, Philip Kasinitz, Ann Chih Lin, John Mollenkopf, Andrea Simpson, Rogers Smith, Mary Waters, and Janelle Wong, all of whom read versions of many of these chapters and provided insightful feedback and encouragement.

   I also am especially grateful to Mary Waters, Philip Kasinitz, and John Mollenkopf, for the inspiring example of their own work on immigrant life in New York City. I owe a special debt to John, his sometime collaborator John Logan, Kyle Crowder, Suzanne Model, and Karthick Ramakrishnan for their generous data support. Their expertise is reflected in several of the tables and figures on census and voting statistics. I also am thankful for the excellent research assistance of Dale Vieregge, Catherine Paden, and Jonathan Webber, who was especially helpful in the final stretch. Wenquan Zhang deserves special mention for his first-rate work on the census maps. As the book neared completion, I benefited from the expert guidance of my editor at Cambridge University Press, Lewis Bateman; his assistant, Ciara McLaughlin; my production editor, Janis Bolster; and my copy editor, Susan Thornton. The comments of the anonymous readers also were quite helpful.

   I presented early versions of several of these chapters at meetings of the American Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the Social Science Research Council International Migration Program. I also shared drafts of chapters at workshops at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University; the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University; the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies at the University of Rochester; the Center for the Study of Race, Inequality, and Poverty at Yale University; Florida International University; and the Research Institute for the Study of Man. I wish to thank the many bright minds I encountered at these various meetings. Their tough questions and illuminating observations helped strengthen my work.

   Several institutions and organizations furnished support in the form of space, time, and resources for me to research, think, and write. They include the Social Science Research Council, the Ford Foundation, the Center for Domestic and Comparative Policy Studies at Princeton University, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. The Department of Political Science at Northwestern University also granted me resources and leave time to finish the book. Several of my colleagues in the department took the time to review draft chapters and offer encouragement. I am especially grateful to Dennis Chong, who kindly read the entire manuscript and offered useful suggestions for improving it. I thank him for his friendship, professional advice, and intellectual support.

   Though writing a book might seem like a mostly solitary enterprise, I had the company and support of several good friends while finishing this one. My fond thanks and appreciation go to my dear friend and colleague Hawley-Fogg Davis for her great humor and encouragement and our always scintillating conversations about the curiosities of race and life in general. I am also grateful for the warm support and good cheer I have enjoyed over the years from my friends Laura Lee Berry, Geoffrey Giddings, and Patrik-Ian Polk. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Shawn McGuffey for showing such sensitivity and concern for me and interest in my work. I thank him for holding my hand, having my back, and sending good chi when the going got tough.

   During my time in the field, I was fortunate to have the assistance of many people in New York’s Caribbean community. Though they are too many to acknowledge individually, I wish to thank them collectively for helping me find my bearings in the field and get this project off the ground. The staff at the Caribbean Research Center at Medgar Evers College deserve special mention for putting me in touch with the right people. I also wish to thank Norma Blaize, who transcribed the field interviews with meticulous care. My largest debt of gratitude is to the Caribbean immigrants who generously shared their time, experiences, and ideas during the interviews. Their insights helped make this book what it is.

   Finally, I could not have completed this work without the support of my family. I thank my brothers for their loving support. I found great comfort in their company when I took breaks from my research and reassurance in the knowledge they were always in my corner. My deepest thanks are to my mother and father. I could never quantify just how much their unwavering love and quiet confidence have helped me in my career and in the completion of this book. But they should know their support has meant everything to me.