Senior Caribbean women: migration, resilience within the context of intersectionality

To date, contemporary research on intersectionality has provided limited evidence regarding how the health and wellbeing of first-generation, senior Caribbean women have been influenced by their experiences of migration following World War II to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The push and pull factors associated with globalization and migration prompted both countries to rebuild their depleted workforces after the war through targeted recruitment strategies that included women from the Caribbean. This article is inspired by the original narratives of the senior Caribbean women who participated in my PhD study. It examines a unique aspect of Caribbean women’s experiences, focusing particularly on their memories from their late teenage years to early twenties. The article highlights the emotional challenges they faced when migrating to a new country. The article emphasizes the vulnerabilities of young female migrants as they adapt to their roles as both workers and mothers in their new environment. Additionally, it discusses the consequences of feeling unwelcome, unsupported, undervalued, and encountering social injustices. The experiences of senior Caribbean women illustrate that resilience is not an innate quality; instead, it involves navigating emotional and physical losses, economic hardships, and discrimination related to the intersections of race, gender, class and power.