Caribbean Immigrants in the United States

This brief by the Migration Policy Institute offers an updated portrait of Caribbean immigrants, who accounted for about one-tenth of the 44.5 million immigrants in the U.S in 2017. Using data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau and the United National Population Division, the report begins by briefly discussing the history of migration from Caribbean countries. Beginning in the 1940s, U.S. companies recruited English-speaking immigrants from Caribbean countries to work in agriculture. Workers with other skills, such as nurses, came later. In addition, revolution in Cuba, political troubles in the Dominican Republic, and natural disasters in Haiti caused many to flee to the United States. The brief offers a snapshot of the current Caribbean immigrant population including size, geographic distribution, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, and levels of remittances. For example, about 63 percent of Caribbean immigrants live in the New York and Miami metropolitan areas; Caribbean immigrants are more likely to be proficient in English than the total U.S. immigrant population; Caribbean immigrant adults overall were more likely to have graduated from high school than overall foreign-born adults; and in 2018 global remittances to Caribbean countries totaled $12.6 billion. (Deb D'Anastasio for The Immigrant Learning Center's Public Education Institute)

View online. 

Earlier reports are available for comparison from 2011 and 2006.