Jamaican Briton
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
Jamaican-born residents 146,401 (2001 Census) 160,095 (2011 Census) Population of Jamaican origin 300,000 (2007 Jamaican High Commission estimate) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Brighton, Leicester | |
| Languages | |
| English (British English, Jamaican English), Jamaican Patois | |
| Religion | |
| Majority of Christianity Rastafarianism · Islam · Others. |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| British African-Caribbean community, British mixed-race community, Chinese Jamaicans, Jamaicans of African ancestry, Jamaican Americans, Jamaican Canadians, Jamaican Nigerians, Indo-Jamaicans, Jamaican Australians |
British Jamaican (or Jamaican British) people are British persons who were born in Jamaica or who are of Jamaican descent. The community is well into its sixth generation and consists of around 300,000 individuals, the second largest Jamaican diaspora behind the United States, outside of Jamaica itself . The majority of British people of Jamaican origin were born in the United Kingdom as opposed to Jamaica itself. The Office for National Statistics estimated that in 2010 some 150,000 Jamaican-born people were resident in the UK, with only 49,000 of these retaining Jamaican citizenship.
Jamaicans have been present in the UK since the start of the 20th century, however by far the largest wave of migration occurred after World War II. During the 1950s, Britain's economy was suffering greatly and the nation was plagued with high labour shortages. The British government ultimately looked to its overseas colonies for help and encouraged migration in an effort to fill the many job vacancies. Jamaicans, alongside other Caribbean, South Asian and African groups, came in their hundreds of thousands to the United Kingdom; the majority of Jamaicans settled in London and found work in the likes of London Transport, British Rail and the NHS.
The Caribbean island nation of Jamaica was a British colony between 1655 and 1962, these 300 years of English rule changed the face of the island considerably (having previously been under Spanish rule and populated mainly by the indigenous Arawak and Taino communities – now 92.1% of Jamaicans are descended from Sub-Saharan Africans who were brought over as slaves by the British). Jamaica is the third most populous English-speaking nation in the Americas and the local dialect of English is known as Jamaican Patois. The tight-knit link between Jamaica and the United Kingdom remains evident to this day. There has been a long and well established Jamaican community in the UK since near the beginning of the 20th century. Many Jamaicans fought for Britain in World War I, the British West Indies Regiment recruited solely from the British overseas colonies in the Caribbean.
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