The Indian Diaspora in the Caribbean and Canada

Abstract This article describes the migration of East Indians to the Caribbean under the British indentureship system, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and to Canada as voluntary migrants, in the 20th and 21st centuries. It relates the challenges they endured on their respective journeys and in their new places of abode, the similarities and differences of each context, and the diaspora communities that arose in these places over the long term. But principally, this study argues that in their perseverance and progress, the East Indian diaspora has made considerable tangible and intangible development contributions to their host countries, even generations later. The study uses Martha Nussbaum’s Thick Vague Theory of the Good as a conceptual outline to highlight survival in the indentureship context, and Jennifer Brinkerhoff’s digital diaspora theory to address especially the Canada context, which reflects current waves as well as second- and third-generation Indians.