A historical and comparative survey of the Chinese presence in the Latin American and Caribbean region, with a focus on the Anglophone Caribbean

In this paper, I first broadly map the historical patterns of Chinese presence in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, as a way of distinguishing the primary locations and forms of incorporation and settlement. This historical context provides a baseline from which to examine patterns of the new post-1980s instantiations of Chinese presence in the wider LAC region and Central America and Caribbean (CAC) sub-region, with particular reference to the English-speaking Caribbean, and, even more specifically, the Eastern Caribbean group of islands with no historical antecedent of an older Chinese diaspora. To highlight this specificity, I include findings from preliminary research conducted in several of these islands, and examine some of the key emerging configurations and complications of the new dual presence in the Anglophone Caribbean of the Chinese state and private entrepreneurial immigrant.