British African-Caribbean people
British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa. This includes multi-racial Afro-Caribbean people.
The earliest generations of Afro-Caribbean people to migrate to Britain trace their ancestry to a wide range of Afro-Caribbean ethnic groups, who themselves descend from the disparate African ethnic groups transported to the colonial Caribbean as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. British African Caribbeans may also have ancestry from European and Asian settlers, as well as from various Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. The population includes those with origins in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands,
Anguilla, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Belize, and elsewhere.
Arriving in port cities in small numbers across England and Wales since the mid-18th century, the most significant wave of migration came after World War II, coinciding with the decolonisation era and the dissolution of the British Empire. The governments of the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands promoted immigration to address domestic labour shortages. Known as the Windrush generation, they had arrived as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies in the 1950s and 1960s, owing to birth in the former British colonies of the Caribbean. Those who settled in the UK prior to 1973 were granted either right of abode or indefinite leave to remain by the Immigration Act 1971, although a series of governmental policies in the 2000s and 2010s erroneously treated some as unlawfully residing in the UK. This subsequently became known as the Windrush scandal.
In the 21st century, Afro-Caribbean communities are present throughout the United Kingdom's major cities. As there is no specific UK census category which comprehensively covers the community, population numbers remain somewhat ambiguous. According to the 2011 United Kingdom census, 594,825 Britons identified as "Black Caribbean" and 426,715 identified as "Mixed: White and Black Caribbean". Categories for other Caribbean heritages also exist. Due to the complexities within African Caribbean peoplehood, some of those with a parent or grandparent of African-Caribbean ancestry may identify with, or be perceived as, white people in the United Kingdom.
Terminology
The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health published a glossary in which it suggests a definition of Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean as: "A person of African ancestral origins whose family settled in the Caribbean before emigrating and who self identifies, or is identified, as Afro-Caribbean." A survey of terms used to describe people of African descent in medical research notes: "The term African Caribbean/Afro-Caribbean when used in Europe and North America usually refers to people with African ancestral origins who migrated via the Caribbean islands." It suggests that use of the term in the UK is inconsistent, with some researchers using it to describe people of both Black and Caribbean descent, whereas others use it to refer to those of either West African or Caribbean background.The British Sociological Association's guidelines on ethnicity and race state: "African-Caribbean has replaced the term Afro-Caribbean to refer to Caribbean peoples and those of Caribbean origin who are of African descent. There is now a view that the term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately." The Guardian and Observer style guide prescribes the use of "African-Caribbean" for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting "not Afro-Caribbean".
Sociologist Peter J. Aspinall argues that the term Black has gained increased currency among people of African and Caribbean origin in the UK. He notes that in a 1992 health survey, 17 per cent of 722 African Caribbeans surveyed, including 36 per cent of those aged 16 to 29, described themselves as "Black British". He suggests this "appears to be a pragmatic and spontaneous response to the wish to describe an allegiance to a 'British' identity and the diminishing importance of ties with a homeland in the Caribbean".
Census
The Office for National Statistics does not use a singular "ethnic group" category to comprehensively describe or encompass persons who are part of, or identified with, the African-Caribbean community in the United Kingdom. The "Black Caribbean" category had the highest recorded population figures associated with African Caribbean heritage in the 2011 and 2021 United Kingdom censuses. "Black Caribbean" is under a "Black or Black British" heading in the census. "Mixed: White and Black Caribbean" also had a significant recorded population within the country, denoting unquantified partial African Caribbean and "White" ancestry. This ethnic group category was listed under a "Mixed" heading in the census.Other "Mixed" subcategories which identify some form of Caribbean descent are "Mixed: Caribbean Asian" and "Mixed: White Caribbean". Outside of censuses, there are notable examples of people with African Caribbean ancestry who are perceived as, or identify as, white people in the United Kingdom.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of England and Wales, 623,115 people classified themselves as "Black Caribbean", amounting to 1 per cent of the total population. In the 2011 Census of England and Wales, 594,825 individuals specified their ethnicity as "Caribbean" under the "Black/African/Caribbean/Black British" heading, and 426,715 as "White and Black Caribbean" under the "Mixed/multiple ethnic group" heading. In Scotland, 3,430 people classified themselves as "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" and 730 as "Other Caribbean or Black" under the broader "Caribbean or Black" heading. In Northern Ireland, 372 people specified their ethnicity as "Caribbean". The published results for the "Mixed" category are not broken down into sub-categories for Scotland and Northern Ireland as they are for England and Wales.In the UK Census of 2001, 565,876 people classified themselves in the category "Black Caribbean", amounting to around 1 per cent of the total population. Of the "minority ethnic" population, which amounted to 7.9 per cent of the total UK population, Black Caribbean people accounted for 12.2 per cent. In addition, 14.6 per cent of the minority ethnic population identified as mixed race, of whom around one third stated that they were of mixed Black Caribbean and White descent.
Birthplace
The Census also records respondents' countries of birth and the 2001 Census recorded 146,401 people born in Jamaica, 21,601 from Barbados, 21,283 from Trinidad and Tobago, 20,872 from Guyana, 9,783 from Grenada, 8,265 from Saint Lucia, 7,983 from Montserrat, 7,091 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 6,739 from Dominica, 6,519 from Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3,891 from Antigua and Barbuda and 498 from Anguilla.Detailed country-of-birth data from the 2011 Census is published separately for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, 160,095 residents reported their country of birth as Jamaica, 22,872 Trinidad and Tobago, 18,672 Barbados, 9,274 Grenada, 9,096 St Lucia, 7,390 St Vincent and the Grenadines, 7,270 Montserrat, 6,359 Dominica, 5,629 St Kitts and Nevis, 3,697 Antigua and Barbuda, 2,355 Cuba, 1,812 The Bahamas and 1,303 Dominican Republic. 8,301 people reported being born elsewhere in the Caribbean, bringing the total Caribbean-born population of England and Wales to 264,125. Of this number, 262,092 were resident in England and 2,033 in Wales. In Scotland, 2,054 Caribbean-born residents were recorded, and in Northern Ireland 314. Guyana is categorised as part of South America in the Census results, which show that 21,417 residents of England and Wales, 350 of Scotland and 56 of Northern Ireland were born in Guyana. Belize is categorised as part of Central America. 1,252 people born in Belize were recorded living in England and Wales, 79 in Scotland and 22 in Northern Ireland.
Based on a variety of official sources and extrapolating from figures for England alone, Ceri Peach estimated that the number of people in Britain born in the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951, to 172,000 in 1961 and 304,000 in 1971, and then fell slightly to 295,000 in 1981. He estimates the population of West Indian ethnicity in 1981 to be between 500,000 and 550,000.
Education
Black Caribbeans are more likely than White Britons to have formal qualifications. In 2001, around 29% of White Britons had no qualifications, compared to 27% for Black Caribbeans. In 2011, 24% of White British had no qualifications, higher than the national average of 23%, compared to 20% for Black Caribbeans.Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, a disproportionate number of Caribbean migrant children were classified as "educationally subnormal" and placed in special schools and units. By the end of the 1980s, the chances of white school leavers finding employment were four times better than those of black pupils. In 2000–01, black pupils were three times more likely than white pupils and ten times more likely than Indian pupils to be officially excluded from school for disciplinary reasons.
In 2004, 23.2 per cent of Black Caribbean pupils in England achieved five or more GCSEs or equivalent at grades A* to C including English and mathematics, compared with 41.6 per cent of White British pupils and 40.9 per cent of all pupils regardless of ethnicity. In 2013, the equivalent figures were 53.3 per cent for Black Caribbean pupils, 60.5 per cent for White British pupils and 60.6 per cent overall. Black Caribbean pupils from low income backgrounds tend to academically perform better than White British pupils from low income families. Amongst pupils eligible for free school meals, Black Caribbean pupils outperformed White British pupils by 36.9 to 27.9 per cent for boys and 47.7 to 36.8 per cent for girls in 2013. A report published by the Department for Education in 2015 notes that "Black Caribbean and Mixed White & Black Caribbean students have...shown very strong improvement, from being half as likely White British students to achieve the benchmarks of educational success in the early 2000s to near parity in 2013, although stubborn gaps do remain".
Black Caribbean pupils have a higher university entry rate than White British students.