Caribbean migration to Canada

Migration has long been a feature of Caribbean societies. Created first as a result of the Atlantic slave trade, and later due to other involuntary forms of migration such as that produced by indentured servitude from India, Caribbean territories such as Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, and Haiti are generally viewed as migration-oriented societies. Emancipation and independence from colonial powers did little to transform the economic and social reality of these societies. In response, Caribbean people began to move internally to find employment. With the agricultural expansion of fruit company production in Central America, Caribbean people found work on banana plantations in Costa Rica. Others moved to Panama, where their labor was critical in the construction of the Panama Canal and railways in the early 20th century.