Tuesday, February 18, 2014

"THE INVESTORS" Arabs, Indians and Chinese

Indians, Arabs and Cinese are three of the five largest ethnic immigrant groups on the island.


They are all involved in sales and selling, each group in a different area. The Indians are mostly in jewelry, and clothing, Arabs sell hardware and furniture and the Chinese sell groceries and operate restaurants that are called "Chinese" restaurants on the island, though the food they cook is not really Chinese and is not what they themselves eat.


These are the people investin order to profit. They are however noticeably "groups and not creating a "people" even after almost 40 years of presence on the island. Some even live in what may be called gated communities in the sense that they form their own communities, attend private schools many of them.


An aside here which concerns the French side in particular. Lowlands and Orient Bay have in fact gated communities where the man on the street can only catch a glimpse from the street.


While the Chinese may seem to be the ones who have the most contact with natives, catering to all kinds of islanders, they too form their own closed communities.


Of course, it is not to be expected that just because these people invest here that they should be forced tso become natives, however, they are famous for either only hiring their own group members or immigrants, many of which accept to work under conditions that are not prper and valid. These immigrants say then that they are taken advantage of by "St. Martin people".


In general they are all very separate from the natives and do not form the "melting pot" that one wants to say that they do.



1 comment:

  1. they can take advantage when they use their own, not when they use locals. Locals know their rights, most aliens don't know and some don't care. Some are brought to the islands and pay big money to go to Canada, etc but they are scammed. St Maarten's best kept secret

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