By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. May 19, 2016: Tobagonian Americans (also known as Trinbagonian Americans) have made an inedible mark on the United States through the civil rights era to present day. Here are ten fast facts about this Caribbean immigrant group you may not know:
1: There are an estimated 400,000 Trinidadian Americans living in the U.S. or about 6.4 percent of the total Caribbean estimated population in the U.S.
2: Trinidadian and Tobagonian immigration to the United States, which dates back to the seventeenth century.
3: From 1966 to 1970, 23,367 Trinidadian and Tobagonian immigrants, from the educated elite and rural poor classes, legally migrated to the United States. From 1971 to 1975, the figure climbed to 33,278.
4: The largest number of Trinidadians lives in New York City and in Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Florida, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
5: The Population Analysis of Guyanese and Trinidadians in NYC based on The Newest New Yorker Report from the NYC Department of City Planning, shows that immigrants from Trinidad & Tobago (“Trinidad”) are the eighth-largest foreign-born population in the city.
6: More than 40 percent of all Trinidadian immigrants in the United States live in New York City according to the ‘Population Analysis of Guyanese and Trinidadians in NYC’ by the Indo-Caribbean Alliance, Inc.
7: Trinidadian immigrants’ household income is approximately $44,000, which is consistent with the average household income for all foreign-born populations.
8: The median age of Trinidad immigrants is 46-48 years old but approximately 1 out of 3 is between 18-44 years old.
9: The West Indian Carnival in New York City, which had its genesis in Harlem, NYC as a pre-Lenten indoor fete, was founded by Trinidad immigrant Jessie Waddle. She could not return to Trinidad for carnival so decided to throw her own! Waddle later obtained a permit to celebrate Trinidad carnival on Lenox Avenue on Labor Day in the early 1940s.
10: Celebrities with Trinidadian roots include Kwame Ture, Alfonso Ribeiro, Foxy Brown, Heather Headley, Jackee Harry, Lorraine Toussaint, Nia Long, Nicki Minaj, Trinidad Jame$ and Romany Malco.
