I have lived in New York and Connecticut which both have a high concentration of Jamaicans living there. I now live in Texas and have met only a handful of Jamaicans, most of whom moved from New York. So I wonder what makes Jamaicans move to the states they move to? A friend was telling me that the top three states with the highest concentration of Jamaicans were Florida, New York, and Connecticut. This is cool but why stay crammed in three states when there are 47 other states on the map.







WHO JAH BLESS, NO MAN CURSE

LOL Princess...good question! My guess on Florida is because its so close to Jamaica. Weather's great and its cheap to get back home when they wanna go.

And why not spread some of the love up in Canada too!!! We only have one Jamaican in western Canada.

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another interesting tidbit is that the island of jamaica is about the size of connecticut. lol

well florida is an easy one. weather and distance to jamaica makes it an easy place to settle. you can still have your mango and ackee trees.

my town has a population of about 70,000 and there are maybe 3 jamaicans living here. (pitiful ain't it?) one thing that comes to my mind is that transitioning from one country to another is easier if you're reminded of home. when my mom moved from the philippines to california she was able to go to the "filipino store" to buy her fish, bread, spices, and such. and there were plenty of other filipinas in the area for her to makes friends with. then, a few years after getting remarried all of us moved to indiana so that we could be closer to my dad's family. this was culture shock for my poor mom. she didn't speak tagalog everyday like she used to and there was no filipino store. she was very unhappy for the first few years and it was horrible to see her so sad. thank goodness she eventually got used to it. recently, more filipinos have moved into the area and now we DO have a filipino store!

New York is the melting pot of many different ethic backgrounds with people coming from all walks of life around the world. Even my mother when she was 16 yrs old got tried of picking cotton in Alabama and moved to the big apple to get a real job making the big bucks.

So I would say, people will go where the money is at, where there is the most avalibility of jobs, and where the transportation is better in order to get about the city especially when you don't have the money to just buy a car right away. You can always hail a taxi or take the subway.

The Jamaican people are a close net family and bond together by helping one another when coming from their homeland, and that's what I call UNITY! a house divided cannot stand and together they keep the culture alive within the Jamaican community while being away from their homeland of Jamaica.

I was born and raised in New York and road the subways back and forth to work and didn't need a car. The Jamaican people also go to places where there families who have gone on before them having a place for their friends and family to stay until they can get on their feet and become independent in America. I personally would want to go to a place where I know I had a support group.

Going to a place where you don't know anyone would not be the greastest move on anyones part. That would be like walking into something blind. It's always good to know someone where you are planning to stay.

I'll move to the other 47 when they open a Juicy Patty

Where I live in Toronto Jamaicans all around me so i don't have to look far to see one of my own just open my front door walk up the street we are all around.