Jamaican Immigrants in the United States and Canada: Race, Transnationalism, and Social Capital (The New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society)

Jones finds that the experiences and socioeconomic progress of immigrants are largely dependent on their contexts of reception. She bases her findings on her study of Jamaican immigrants in Miami-Fort Lauderdale (South Florida) and Toronto (Canada). Of particular relevance are the racial and ethnic compositions of the two areas, their labor markets, and the immigration policies of the two countries. She compares the socioeconomic status of Jamaican immigrants in these two areas, using education, occupation, and income as the main indicators. Jamaicans in South Florida fare better in all three indicators than they do in Toronto. A primary reason for this is the presence of a large native-born blacks population in the U.S., creating a network for the Jamaicans.