From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Caribbean Peoples/Frances Henry
Marriage relationships, family organization, gender relations, and systems of kinship as practised in the Caribbean region are extremely varied and complex. Indeed, it can be said that the institutional patterns of family dynamics are among the most complicated of all the basic structures which regulate social life and activity in Caribbean society. In Caribbean life, family organization is characterized by legal marriages, common-law marriages, and visiting and casual unions. There is also a high level of illegitimacy although many Caribbean countries have now taken away the stigma of illegitimacy by removing the term from public use and by changing inheritance and other laws which had discriminated against “illegitimate” children. All these forms of sexual relations are practised by Caribbean people at all class levels, although the frequencies of each type may vary by class and other variables. The proportion of common-law and visiting unions are higher in the lower class than in the middle class. Legal marriage, however, is the most common form of sexual relationship, even in the lower class.
Sexual and family relationships in the Caribbean are strongly influenced by the interplay of race/colour, gender, and particularly class. The history of the region also plays an important role. The original plantation economy introduced by European countries primarily to grow sugar imported large numbers of slaves from Africa to meet its needs for labour and it also produced a new society in which many different cultural strands were interwoven. Legal marriage was not allowed under conditions of slavery, and both family organization and social behaviour were subject to the many constraints associated with slavery. Not least of these was the removal of authority from men with respect to maintaining their families and assuming decision-making roles. Moreover, women were subject to the sexual whims of their masters. The later period of colonialism brought family values and behaviour typically associated with middle- and upper-class European life. Caribbean family structure, therefore, is extremely complex and influenced by a variety of historical factors, as well as African, European, and South Asian cultural traditions.
Since social status plays such an important role in shaping and defining family and gender relationships in the Caribbean, it is not surprising that class continues to play that role under conditions of migration. One of the strongest areas of cultural continuity among Caribbean immigrants in Canada is, in fact, the retention of class-based forms of family organization and gender relations. These class-based patterns, however, such as common-law relationships, single-parent families headed by women, mothers who are teenagers or very young adults, and absent fathers may become dysfunctional under conditions of migration to countries like Canada. Such patterns frequently constrain the social and economic mobility of the immigrants, particularly of young women. Moreover, while patterns such as single-female parenthood are not intrinsically inferior to two-parent families, they are strongly related to low income and the continuance of a life characterized by poverty for mothers and their children.
A variable of some importance in influencing family dynamics among Caribbean people is the length of time they have been in Canada and whether they are first- or second-generation immigrants. The ways in which first-generation immigrants continue or change features of their family relationships must be differentiated from those of the second generation (this group also includes young adults between approximately eighteen and twenty-five who were born in the Caribbean but migrated a very early age).
As in the Caribbean, several patterns of family composition are found among Caribbean immigrants in Canada including single-parent families, common-law families, and families with legally married spouses. There is no evidence of the matrifocal family type and it is quite likely that a three-generation family headed by a female, as is often found in the Caribbean, cannot be maintained under conditions of migration.
The census data on Caribbean family organization is revealing because it confirms that Caribbean people as a whole do less well on a number of economic indicators than Canadians or other immigrants. For example, with respect to income, Caribbean families earn less than do other foreign-born or Canadians. According to the 1986 Canadian census, the average annual income of Caribbean families was $34,750, as compared to $45,163 for other foreign-born and $49,857 of Canadian-born. Part of this difference in income is explained by the higher proportion among Caribbean families of single-female-parent families who earn less than do all other families and are among the poorest group in Canada.
Caribbean families in Canada generally establish either a nuclear or single-head household arrangement. The large extended family, so characteristic of Caribbean society, tends to be impossible to maintain under conditions of migration. One of the major implications of the shift towards nuclear or single-parent families is that traditional child-care arrangements, in which children are looked after by the grandmother or mother’s sister, cannot be maintained. The lack of family support is one of the most crucial changes with which Caribbean immigrants, particularly mothers (and especially single mothers), must cope.
One of the most striking retentions or cultural continuities in the family life of Caribbean immigrants in Canada is the pattern of single motherhood. Despite the differences which migration brings in the life style of Caribbean peoples, working-class men and women maintain intimate relationships that often produce children but do not necessarily lead to marriage. There are twice the number of female- single-parent families in the Caribbean population compared to all other groups in Canada. This is a clear indication that this pattern of family organization, as well as the dynamics of male– female relationships that underlie it, continue to be maintained under conditions of migration.
A recurrent theme in the family organization of the Caribbean community is that a significant number of men and women do not grow up with their fathers. For many, this is the result of their illegitimate birth status, but the father may also have been absent as a result of the breakdown of the marriage or relationship.
Relationships within the family are also greatly influenced by the geographical mobility of many Caribbean immigrants. The frequency of movement, cross-nationally and even internally within a city or province, deeply affects the relationships of family members and particularly the socialization of children. Family members frequently have been separated, some for long periods of time. There is a pattern of women, usually unmarried mothers, migrating to Canada and attempting to establish themselves economically and socially before they send for children, who were left behind in the care of grandmother, aunt, or other female relative. In a few instances, husbands and wives migrate together, sometimes also leaving their children in the care of others. Although the majority of persons were in a relationship at the time of migration, in many cases the couple do not migrate at the same time. A common pattern during the 1960s was that woman migrated first, often under the government’s domestic-labour scheme, and once she was settled, sent for both children and partner.
Among first-generation immigrants, there appears to be a high rate of breakdown in marriages and relationships within the first three years of arrival in Canada. There is no definitive explanation for these breakdowns, but one factor may be the dynamics of male–female relationships as they developed historically in Caribbean society. Bonds between men and women often lack emotional depth, and the western concept of romantic love is largely missing in Caribbean society. Instrumentality rather than affection frequently appears to be the primary motivation in forming relationships, at least to the point of sharing a common household. Men in the first instance want sexual gratification, and then attention to their domestic needs. These can, of course, be satisfied by ties that do not include the sharing of a household.
A common pattern in lower-class Caribbean life is that a man has a woman (or several women) who cooks and does his laundry, may have children by him, but does not live with him in the sense of sharing a common household. A woman, however, may be primarily motivated by the need to find a man who can offer economic support to herself, her children, and possibly other relatives within her family. When a couple decides to live together, in marriage or common-law, a bond of affection is obviously necessary, but the burning needs of intense romantic love are more often than not lacking in many of these relationships.
Traditional, culturally defined gender relations change with the migration experience. The primary change relates to the enhanced role of women and their ability to become financially independent of their husbands. Men are traditionally defined as the head of the household, but women, in fact, often become the most important support of the family unit and, as a result, threaten the self-esteem of their partners. The growing economic independence of a woman may compromise her partner’s position of authority and add to tensions between them.
Another factor in marital breakdown relates to parent-child conflicts within the family, which, in turn, create stress for the parental couple. As children grow up in Canada and are exposed to values and norms which contradict traditional Caribbean values, generational conflicts between parents and children tend to occur.
With migration, the concept of marriage changes to that of a more equal partnership between men and women in which both partners contribute to the success of the family unit. The wife works and contributes to the running of the household, and she expects the same level of contribution from her husband or mate. Should the husband not be able to fulfil these expectations, strains develop in the relationship. Men are more likely to express frustration in the workforce in response to racism and lack of opportunity and to lose their jobs, while women tend to be more accepting of workplace harassment and to hold onto their jobs. Thus, one factor that influences marital breakdown is the greater economic vulnerability of Caribbean men.
