Our Stories Matter: The Higher Education Experiences of Afro-Caribbean Women in the United States

• In Event: Black Womanist Epistemology and Experience at the Nexus of Truth-Telling in Consequential Scholarship

Abstract

The migration of people from the Caribbean to North America began before the formation of the United States. Afro-Caribbean people have contributed to the labor force, first as involuntary migrants in the seventeenth century and as voluntary migrants since the late nineteenth century. Migration from the Caribbean to the United States has provided educational and financial opportunities for those who might not have had those opportunities in their native country, especially Afro-Caribbean women. Their experiences, when reported in research, are rarely disaggregated, based on race or gender, from the experiences of other Black immigrants and African Americans (Hudley, 2016).
Objective: This review explored literature from the last two decades, since the decline in the rate of migration in 2000 (Zong & Batalova, 2019; Lorenzi & Batalova, 2022). It identified common truths within the experiences of Afro Caribbean women, immigrant or international students, who study at colleges and universities within the United States.
Theoretical Framework: The review used Nora’s Student Engagement Model (2004) to identify the most salient indicators of this population's college persistence that have been discussed in the literature. The model improves on earlier models of college persistence and shows the importance of culture and ethnicity to students’ college persistence. The use of this model with a Black Womanist Epistemological lens highlights the experience of Afro-Caribbean women and their stories of the challenges they faced migrating to a country where they have been minoritized.
Methods and Data Sources: The review of current literature focused on the six components of the model, pre-college/pull factors, sense of purpose and institutional allegiance, academic and social experiences, cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, goal determination/institutional allegiance, and persistence. These components informed the themes that guided this review. The review included qualitative and quantitative studies that were conducted using large data sets.
Results and Significance: There is a dearth of literature that specifically explores the experiences of Afro-Caribbean people, and this is especially true for Afro-Caribbean women. The literature shows that these students have racialized experiences similar to those of their African American counterparts. However, research fails to disaggregate the data collected and creates a single narrative that does not account for the significant differences (Mwangi et al., 2017; Desmore et al., 2016). Some women discussed microaggressions that were related to their race and citizenship (Rahming, 2019, 2022). Specifically, they discussed the campus climate and negative racial experiences that they had on their campuses They also highlighted the importance of familial support and their cultural connections. Some women discussed the financial challenges that they had and how these challenges were compounded by their immigration status. They also reported on the support they received from their classmates and their assimilation to life in the United States.
The findings from the review show the importance of future research that explores the experiences of Afro-Caribbean women. This research has the potential to offer insight into their higher education experiences that could inform instructional policy and practices for K-20 education and provide resources to support this population.
 

Author

• Renata A Halls-Gordon, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author