Oral histories reveal the attitudes and emotions associated with emigration and return.

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Contents
Introduction3
Barbados The Island Homeland 19
Patterns of West Indian Migration 41
Barbadians in Britain 61
Norman and Ann Bovell 63
Roy Campbell 83
Valenza Griffith 105
John Wickham 129
Cleveland and Rose Thornhill 145
Janice Whittle 161
Barbadians in North America 177
The Mighty Gabby 179
Siebert and Aileen Allman 201
Richard Goddard 221
13 Errol Inniss 243
Interpretations 259
Immigrants in the Metropole 261
The Meaning of Return Migration 283
Reflections on Oral History and Migration 311
Bibliography 327
Index 335
Copyright
 

Description

Double Passage presents, in their own words, the lives and experiences of thirteen men and women from the island of Barbados who emigrated to North America and Britain and then years later returned home. They tell of their decisions to leave the familiarity and security of home for an uncertain future in cities of the industrial world; they explain what it is like to be black and immigrant in the predominantly white societies they settled in; and they reveal their struggles to find work and decent housing, to develop new relationships, and to save enough money to be able to return home and assume the affluent lifestyle expected of returnees. Double Passage is an extraordinary book that is able both to inform and to entertain.