Sociodemographic Structures and Processes Predispose Caribbean Populations to Risk and Social Vulnerability

Abstract

In order to understand the population dynamics and the accompanying socio-demographic variables’ trends, risks, and social vulnerability, one must have an understanding of the history and contemporary nature of the political economy of the region. The colonization of the Caribbean depended on the exploitation of suitable and abundant workforce to man the plantations which supplied the raw material manufactured from the lucrative mono-crop (sugar cane). Exploitation refers to the appropriation of the surplus of production over and above what the producers needed to reproduce and re-energize their bodies, so as to sustain their lives and the labour process. The traditional social system was emasculated with inequities which impacted mostly on the rapidly increasing population. The movement for independence sought political power so as to use the State as the lever to redress the inequities and to promote the social and economic development of the region. The assumption was that economic development would improve the material conditions of life for the majority of the people, mainly African and East Indians, thereby provide the basis for the social development of the societies of the region. The study has identified the impact the “brain drain” is having in some areas of economic development and at the same time, the important role Caribbean governments have to play in the formulation of education policies that will benefit the most vulnerable groups in Caribbean societies so that they can be able to improve their social and psychological living standards.