10 Fast Facts About Guyanese Immigrants In The US You Should Know
Guyanese in the USA
By NAN Staff Writer – Published on May 09 2016 – News Americas
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. May 10, 2016: Come May 26th, the CARICOM South America-based nation of Guyana will mark its 50th year of independence from Britain. Thousands of Guyanese call the U.S. home, and in New York, Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary Celebration Committee will mark the anniversary with a week-long series of events between Saturday, June 4th and Sunday June 12, 2016. Here are ten fast facts about Guyanese in the U.S. you may not know:
1: The United States has the highest number of Guyanese outside of Guyana. An average of 6,080 people a year emigrated from Guyana between 1969 and 1976, increasing to an average of 14,400 between 1976 and 1981. As of 1990, 80 percent of Guyanese-Americans lived in the Northeast United States.
2: According to the latest U.S. Census’ American Fact Finder, there are an estimated 273,000 people in the U.S. claiming Guyanese as their first ancestry as of 2013.
3: The majority of Guyanese live in New York City – some 140,000 – making them the fifth-largest foreign-born population in the city.
1: The United States has the highest number of Guyanese outside of Guyana. An average of 6,080 people a year emigrated from Guyana between 1969 and 1976, increasing to an average of 14,400 between 1976 and 1981. As of 1990, 80 percent of Guyanese-Americans lived in the Northeast United States.
2: According to the latest U.S. Census’ American Fact Finder, there are an estimated 273,000 people in the U.S. claiming Guyanese as their first ancestry as of 2013.
3: The majority of Guyanese live in New York City – some 140,000 – making them the fifth-largest foreign-born population in the city.
4: In Queens, NY – which has the largest concentration of Indo-Caribbeans in the five boroughs – Guyanese represent the second largest foreign-born population with some 82,000. A large concentration of them can be found in the neighborhoods of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, Queens according to the ‘Population Analysis of Guyanese and Trinidadians in NYC’ by the Indo-Caribbean Alliance using New York City Department of City Planning data.
5: Guyanese are the second largest immigrant group in Queens, NY. Other Guyanese populated areas in the U.S. include Orlovista, FL; Irvington, New Jersey; Orange, New Jersey; East Orange, New Jersey; Flatbush, Brooklyn; Canarsie, Brooklyn; East Flatbush, Brooklyn, Rockland County, New York, Schenectady, New York; Verona Walk, FL; Oakland, FL; Emerald Lakes, PA; South Plainfield, NJ; Olanta, S.C.; Lincoln Park, GA; Bladensburg, MD and Loganville, FL.
6: The first Guyanese to arrive in the U.S. came around 1968, either as “private household workers” or as nurses’ aides and were of African descent according to research from Jacqueline A. McLeod in “Guyanese-Americans.” Some 70,523 came post 1964.
7: According to Monica Gordon in ‘In Search of a Better Life: Perspectives on Migration from the Caribbean,’ more Guyanese women than men settled in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, making them primarily responsible for securing immigrant status for their families. These women, Gordon concluded, tended to see migration as a means to improve their economic and social status and the educational opportunities of their children.
8: Some 17 percent of Guyanese in the U.S. are seniors (ages 65 and older) but 74 percent of all immigrants from Guyana had the highest naturalization rates, meaning they are more likely to be U.S. citizens and can vote.
9: Recent remittances from the United States to Guyana totaled some US$438 million, (G$ 90.7 billion), according to the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).
10: Famous Guyanese and those of Guyanese ancestry include: late elected politician Shirley Chisholm; actors Derek Luke, C. C. H. Pounder, Nicole Narain, Sean Patrick Thomas and Mark Gomes; baseball player Mark Teixeira and highly recognized HIV researcher, Dr. Deborah Persaud.
Comments
6. “The first Guyanese to arrive in the U.S. came around 1968, either as “private household workers” or as nurses’ aides and were of African descent according to research from Jacqueline A. McLeod in “Guyanese-Americans.” Some 70,523 came post 1964.”
This is not accurate. I have family who came from Berbice to the US in the 1930’s.
There are others of Portugese extraction who came in the 50-60’s.
You did not mention California, There are at least 1000, (perhaps more)\
Guyanese living in California, some came directly to California, and some came from other States to California in the last 15 years. I know of a number of Guyanese (who are now in their mid 70’s who were here during the late 50’s mid 60’s. I myself migrated to California from Subryanville, ECD Guyana in 1968.
I came in ’78 to NY and 6 years later moved to California. Aunts and uncles came in mid 60’s.
Number 6 was really a wild, irresponsible statement. As soon as it looked like Jagan would take the country into Independence the Guyanese middle class started packing up in droves.
@thinker… I see your delusion is again rearing its head with your harebrained ASSumption that the Guyanese middle class packed up and left because of Jagan and not because of the racial riots, mass looting, and violent collapse of civilized society that the hoodlums, backed by the CIA and Britain, unleashed on Guyana causing the middle class, including terrified blacks, to flee. It is also possible that the middle class you are referring to were those foreigners living and working in middle class jobs in Guyana and when they left due to the changing situation, some decided to take their mammy along, as in the woman in #6.
I take it you didn’t read some (the American govt still refuses to release the rest even after all the years) of the declassified US files that acknowledged that the whole communist fear mongering was a cover to hide and continue their ulterior agenda – maintaining a puppet governed neocolony, which Burnham was only too happy to do to prove himself to massa that he is highly qualified to be given the coveted role as an uncle tom. Jagan was no uncle tom and he let them know he was not going to become one either. The fact that you can choose to praise Burnham and disparage Jagan says a lot about your inherent dna.
Nonsense about inherent DNA. Of course the CIA had a major role in the destabilisation of Jagan. The reality is that many of the middle class, convinced that Jagan would lead the country into Independence and another Cuba type transformation packed bags and headed north well before 64.
My earliest and indelible memory of emigration centered around the 6th. September 1951. RNS Cottica. Cabin No. 79.
http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/knsm.htm
My uncle, a talented “Tailor & Cutter” left for London to “seek his fortune”. He did find a satisfying career on Saville Row. Many of his age group were to follow. England was referred to as the “mother country” and I sensed that it accepted immigrants from its colonies more out of duty, than anything else. A younger group followed, to seek higher education; with the help of that original group. Brixton appears to have been ‘center’ for West Indian immigrants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton
The USA was considered to be a lesser option; chiefly because the education standards appeared to be lower than those of the British Isles. I used to look at the ads on the back cover of comic books (forbidden reading) and wondered at offers of “Schwinn” bicycles and “Correspondence Courses”. I cannot remember the transition from “GCE ‘A’ Level” to “Inter BSc.” but the latter was on the resume of many job holders – clearly an Americanism. Emigration to Canada and the USA started out as genuine and existing job opportunities for skilled workers. It deteriorated into almost an underground movement. There were many instances of Guyanese visiting Canada ‘with intent’. The authorities were on the ball; and many fled ahead of Canadian Immigration Authority- back to Guyana or across the border to the USA where they could join the army and see Viet Nam. Many were deported, a stigma that had to be avoided at all cost.
But back to 1953. There was great consternation in Georgetown as the election results were declared. This was overwhelmingly drowned out by the jubilation in the rural areas, as the election results continued to stream in. Times were, on the whole, good. The PPP enjoyed great support and “Dr. Jagan and Lawyer Burnham were fighting for ‘coolie’ and ‘black man’ freedom”. That was both perception and reality. Overseas, through the lenses of America’s fear of communism and Britain’s alliance, the PPP and its leaders were perceived as severe and eminent threats to their ideas and ideology, their comfort zone. In retrospect the PPP gave ample evidence for this. I remember white sharkskin suits and red ties marching over to the Legislative Building; the Constitution will be suspended over my dead body; easier to stop tomorrow than stop communism; friends with rockets; christening the No.1 son ‘Joey’ to honor Stalin.
A plot was hatched. The rest is their story. We were pawns, collateral damage.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/30/world/a-kennedy-cia-plot-returns-to-haunt-clinton.html?pagewanted=all
But yes, DNA was / is a factor. It carries the genes for talent, creativity pioneering and things like that. These qualities need a favorable environment for expression. It is my opinion that those very genes propelled the emigration out of the land of my birth; and the gene pool that remains there does not enjoy the environments necessary to bring out the latent talents and initiatives.
The tragedy is that creating a suitable environment is not the first item on anyone’s priority list.
“A mind is a terrible thing to lose.” (Attributed to Dan Quale)
And is a nation is a collection of minds.
Please check your facts. The first Guyanese in NY did indeed arrive way before 1968. The US Census or the NY City Department of City Planning , Dept. of Demography are the best sources.