WORKERS IN THE BRITISH-VIRGIN-ISLANDS - THE COMPLEXITIES OF RESIDENCE AND MIGRATION

This article examines the economic, social and cultural effects of migration in the British Virgin Islands. This topic has been largely ignored, yet constitutes one of the most important aspects of BVI society. Immigrants from the Eastern Caribbean come to work in the BVI primarily in Tourism. And BV Islanders migrate to the USVI to work in similar occupations. Both economies gain much from these predominantly immigrant labor forces yet rarely acknowledge this. This article explores the gender and national divisions in the BVI tourist economy and the BVI labor force specifically. And it examines the sociocultural as well as economic difficulties of life for- migrant and resident workers in the BVI.