Migrations in the Three Guianas: Evolution, Similarities and Differences

Migration research on the Three Guianas has primarily focused on ‘overseas’ emigration towards European and North American destinations. This has resulted in literature on Surinamese migration to the Netherlands (De Bruijne and Schalkwijk 1994; Gowricharn and Schuster 2001; Reubsaet 1984; Van Amersfoort 2011), Guyanese migration to Britain and North America (Kirton and Lewis 2015; Roopnarine 2013) and a limited but growing body of research on French Guianese migration to France (Calmont 1978, 1981; Calmont 1988; Marie et al. 2012; Marie and Rallu 2004; Temporal, Marie and Bernard 2011). To a large extent, the important volumes and concentrations of migration from the Three Guianas to Europe and North America justify this focus. However, this has resulted in a lack of comparative research exploring the similarities and differences in these countries’ migration evolutions and identifying the migration effects of important political and socioeconomic developments in each country. Moreover, there has been a general failure to fully account for the various forms of mobility within and across the Guianas, including the large forested areas in the interior, and their association to the processes of socioeconomic and political transformation that have occurred in the Three Guianas. This chapter presents insights gained from comparing migration in the Three Guianas with particular attention to how major political and socioeconomic processes, including independence, the establishment of the borders and broader processes of development, have shaped various forms of migration in the Three Guianas.