Social Organizational Obstacles to Capital Accumulation Among Returning Migrants: The British West Indies Temporary Alien Labor Program

Recent research on return migration has undermined the idea that international labor migration serves as a vehicle for economic development in labor-sending countries. This has led to the ascendance of a view of international labor migration as yet another form of exploitation of poor nations by wealthy nations, as migrants fail to accumulate capital enough to free themselves and their replacement generations from the migrant stream. This paper examines Jamaicans who migrate to the U.S. seasonally and annually to harvest sugar cane in south Florida and apples in the Northeast. It compares their capital holdings and primary economic activities in Jamaica with other Jamaicans who have not had the opportunity to migrate to the U.S. to work. These comparisons reveal few significant differences between the migrant and non-migrant groups and suggest that seasonal migration to the U.S. generally does not result in capital accumulation among the returning migrants. The lack of capital accumulation among the major...