Les immigrés caribéens dans les métropoles du système-monde capitaliste et la « colonialité du pouvoir »

Abstract

This article deals with the role of what has been called the « new racism » in the reproduction of « imagined historical borders » that exclude colonial people from access to equal rights within the core of the capitalist world-economy. Post-war Caribbean colonial migration to the metropolis provides an important terrain for the examination of racial discrimination in core zones. First, Caribbean migrants were part of a colonial labor migration to supply cheap labor in core zones during the post-war capitalist expansion. Secondly, they migrated as citizens of the metropoles. Thirdly, they had a long experience of colonial racism in relation to the core. Fourthly, with the contraction of the capitalist world-economy after 1973, first and second generation Caribbean colonial migrants started to become excluded from the labor market. Fifthly, they have been the target of the « new racist » discourses that attempt to keep them in a subordinated position within the core zones via « cultural racist » discourses. Given these similarities, this article attempts to answer the following questions: Why do Puerto Ricans, Surinamese, Dutch Antilleans, French Antilleans, and West Indians experience discrimination, and in many instances marginalization, despite the fact that they hold metropolitan citizenship? What are the differences among the respective metropoles regarding the discrimination and racism experienced? How do these differences illustrate broader differences among the four core states? What is the relationship between the history of empire, the narratives of the nation, and cultural racist discourses with the socio-political incorporation of Caribbean colonial subjects in the metropoles?

Keywords

• migration
• coloniality
• racism
• citizenship