Jamaica in the Canadian Experience

A Multiculturalizing Presence

Edited by Andrea Davis, Carl E. James

In 2012, Jamaica celebrates its fiftieth anniversary of independence from Britain. In the short period of its life as a nation, Jamaica’s increasingly powerful influence on global culture cannot go unremarked. The growth of Jamaican diasporas beyond Britain to the United States, Canada and West Africa has served to strengthen Jamaica’s global reach, so that today Jamaica’s cultural, economic and political achievements are felt way beyond its national borders. This anthology commemorates Jamaica’s independence by acknowledging the immense and widespread contributions of Jamaica and Jamaicans to Canadian society.

Photos: E. Mondesir

”This important interdisciplinary collection pays tribute to the transnational migrations that are such an integral part of the fabric of Caribbean life, and that have also fundamentally shaped the Canadian landscape. The book offers us generous and hopeful vision of multiculturalism, peopled by the daily joys, trials and aspirations of generations of Jamaican-Canadians who are neither simply urban residents nor recent arrivals, and whose presence is key to understanding what it means to be Canadian today.”–Alissa Trotz, Associate Professor and Director, Caribbean Studies, University of Toronto

”I am pleased to be associated in a modest way with the genesis and conceptualization of this work and even more gratified by its completion and the high quality of its content.”–Sheila Sealy Monteith, High Commissioner for Jamaica to Canada

Contents

Jamaica in the Canadian Experience (Carl E. James & Andrea Davis)
Foreword (Mary Anne Chambers), 
Introduction (Andrea Davis & Carl E. James) 
Part 1—Setting the Context, 
Part 2—Migration: Opportunities and Challenges, 
Part 3—Language and Culture, 
Part 4—Diaspora, 
Part 5—Canada: From East to West, 
Part 6—Influences Then and Now, 
Part 7—Educating Canadians, 
Part 8—Economic and Social Relations
Postscript (Sheila Monteith)

About the Authors

ANDREA DAVIS is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities at York University. She is also the interim director of the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean.

CARL E. JAMES is the Director of the York Centre for Education and Community. He also teaches in the Faculty of Education and in the graduate programs in sociology and social work.

Fernwood Publishing

• Paperback ISBN: 9781552665350
• Paperback Price: $29.95 CAD
• Publication Date: Aug 2012
• Rights: World
• Pages: 320