A Theoretical Framework for the Study of the Psychological Sense of Community of English-Speaking Caribbean Immigrants

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Abstract
The central observation here is that a Caribbean immigrant from one island develops a psychological sense of community towards Caribbean immigrants from a different island. This sense of community is the inclination of the immigrant to consider himself or herself and immigrants from the other island to be a unit, to relate to the immigrants from the other island as though these immigrants were himself or herself. It may be engendered as the immigrant develops connections to immigrants from the other island: resides close to them, interacts with them, identifies with them, and displays a dependence on them for his or her identity. The immigrant develops these connections under the influence of contextual conditions under which the immigrant lives: the Caribbean migrant ideology, the disorganization the immigrant experiences because of the differences between his or her native culture and that of the new society and the achievement orientation of the immigrant in the new society.