Caribean Immigrants Discourses

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CommunicationJournal of Business

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DOI: 10.1177/0021943610369789 2010 47: 235Journal of Business Communication

Melissa J. Bridgewater and Patrice M. BuzzanellAbout Workplace Communication in the United States

Caribbean Immigrants' Discourses : Cultural, Moral, and Personal Stories

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CARIBBEAN IMMIGRANTS DISCOURSES

Cultural, Moral, and Personal Stories About Workplace Communication in the United States

Melissa J. BridgewaterSaint Albans, New York

Patrice M. BuzzanellPurdue University

The authors determined how Caribbean immigrants position themselves and make sense of their work-place communication through their storytelling. Using the constant comparative technique, they ana-lyzed interviews with 25 Caribbean immigrants and found two discursive positionings: (a) within their cultural-moral narratives of the American Dream and (b) in stories that reproduce and resist specific intercultural workplace communication. Personal sensemaking stories broke down the monolithic cultural and moral narratives of the American Dream to display participants perceptions about, communicative strategies for, and discursive self-positioning for handling their unique workplace experiences. They made sense of their experiences through invocation of difference discoursesrace, class, gender, and immigrant statusand actively sought ways of asserting their agency materially and discursively.

Keywords: organizational communication; immigration; stories; discursive positioning; sensemak-ing; American Dream

Currently, immigrants account for 12.1% of the total U.S. population with 7.9 million legal and illegal immigrants documented in the first 5 years of the 21st century, the highest period on record (Camarota, 2005). This increase has fueled debate in the U.S. Congress and other venues about immigration policy, citizens (un)employment status and the American Dream, perceptions of particular immigrant groups (un)desirability, and

Melissa J. Bridgewater (MA, Purdue University) is a Trinidadian who is a part-time lecturer and freelance communications consultant in workplace communication and public relations. Patrice M. Buzzanell (PhD, Purdue University) is a professor in the Department of Communication, Purdue University. Her research interests coalesce around issues of gender in the workplace with emphasis on career, leadership, and work-family processes. This article was presented as the Top Paper in the Organizational and Professional Communication Division of the Central States Communication Association conference, Madison, WI, April 2008. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Melissa J. Bridgewater, 190-05 117th Rd, Saint Albans, NY 11412; e-mail: [email protected].

Journal of Business Communication, Volume 47, Number 3, July 2010 235-265 DOI: 10.1177/0021943610369789 2010 by the Association for Business Communication


236 JOURNAL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

resentment of some U.S. citizens who believe immigrants take jobs away from them (e.g., Andrews, 2005; Camarota, 2005; Lee & Bean, 2004; Park, 2006). Juxtaposed against these varied discourses, the material conditions of immigrants lives provide a different picture. Immigrants comprise around 15% of the U.S. labor force with median annual earnings of $20,800, almost $7,000 less than citizens median earnings (Camarota, 2005). Yet their role in society cannot be underestimated for, as President G. W. Bush noted in his 2006 State of the Union Address, this economy could not function without them (George W. Bush on Immigration, 2007).

Although organizational communication researchers increasingly examine workers experiences in transnational and postcolonial contexts (e.g., Broadfoot & Munshi, 2007a, 2007b; Mumby & Stohl, 2007; Pal & Buzzanell, 2008), they have paid scant attention to immigrant employees (with the exception of Alkhazraji, Gardner, Martin, & Paolillo, 1997) and particularly to the ways discourses about immigration and particular immigrant group stereo-types or characteristics shape and are shaped by workplace communication. Immigrants stories provide access into their sensemaking about intercul-tural and organizational communication in their workplaces as well as their positioning of themselves within and in contrast to these varied discourses.

Following Jamesons (2007) suggestions, we look beyond construc-tions of collective identity based on broad national cultural characteristics to examine the ways in which individuals seek to understand the impact of their own cultural background and changing cultural identities in work-place situations. Through storytelling, researchers can study changing cul-tural identities and intercultural encounters over time and place. As Bird (2007) notes, individual, social, and group identities derive from telling stories (p. 317), so that the dynamic nature of storytelling offers oppor-tunities to revise, create, and reposition themselves and their workplace communication. Within immigrant stories, we look at workers discursive positioning, that is, their narrative accounts of their personal development and work experiences to see how they negotiate their different statuses, including immigrant, in ways that affirm and/or challenge their senses of self and others responses to their communication (see Jorgenson, 2002).

Through storytelling, researchers can study changing cultural identities and intercultural encounters over time and place.


Bridgewater, Buzzanell / CARIBBEAN IMMIGRANTS STORIES 237

To do so, we present a case study of Caribbean (also known as West Indian) immigrant stories. Case studies enable researchers not only to explore context, participants sensemaking, and changes over time but also to offer practical solutions to workplace communication (see Pal & Buzzanell, 2008). Using the first authors personal network of family members and friends, we display how these particular Caribbean immigrants make sense of communication difficulties and opportunities at work as embedded within their understanding of U.S. culture (see Hagen, 1998; Jameson, 2001, 2007). We focus on Caribbean immigrants, not only because of our access to accounts from people with whom we already have rapport and knowledge of linguistic differences in English usage (taking a note from Scott, 2000), but also because West Indian immigrants share some char-acteristics that make their study important for the U.S. workplace.

Although geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse, West Indians constitute an understudied group known more for their countries locations, tourist trade, and proximity to the United States than for quali-ties that make them sought after in the global workforce. Living and eco-nomic conditions are not on par with neighboring (developed) countries (Andrews, 2005). Beside class issues, their immigration and workplace communication may be complicated by vocational, racial, ethnic, and class characteristics. Many speak English as their first language, but their resemblance to marginalized group members (e.g., African and Hispanic Americans) can, at times, invoke others stereotypical responses in their workplaces.

In summary, this study contributes to understanding how members of an understudied group, that is, Caribbean immigrants, make sense of and position themselves within their intercultural workplace communication experiences. Through analyses of immigrants storytelling, we extend on Jamesons (2007) recommendations by noting how they differentiate their own cultural identities from national character (i.e., their West Indian countries of origin and U.S. home). It is through their discursive position-ing of themselves on levels of cultural formation and linguistic construc-tion that they exert agency to create productive workplace communication.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section, we discuss the nature of and research on workplace narratives focusing on individuals discursive positioning. We describe reasons for immigration and challenging intercultural communication experiences.



Organizational Narratives and Discursive Positioning

Whereas definitions of narrative differ depending on attention to struc-tural and/or sensemaking functions, Jamesons (2001) definition of narra-tive combines both aspects in a way that provides a springboard for our discussion. She says that narrative is a pattern . . . whose hallmark is an explicit or implicit time sequence of events. An event is something that happens, not just something that exists; language about something that merely exists is descriptive, not narrative (p. 477). Organizational com-munication researchers have established narrative as a central process by which members not only order and make sense of their experiences but also learn how to represent reality(ies) to themselves and others (e.g., Bird, 2007; Czarniawska & Gagliardi, 2003; Herrick, 1999; Mumby, 2004; Putnam & Boys, 2006). While some (interpretive) narrative research under-scores how individuals collaboratively create, understand, and change meanings in their specific work contexts and organizational cultures as a whole (e.g., Bird, 2007; Jameson, 2001; Mumby, 2004), other (critical and postmodern) narrative scholarship disentangles and makes visible both how certain versions, interests, and identities come into being, are rewarded, and/or are marginalized and how members resist taken-for-granted social realities and power relations (e.g., Boje, 2001; Coopman & Meidlinger, 2000; Czarniawska, 1998; Mumby, 1988; Putnam & Boys, 2006).

Within intercultural business communication, researchers and partici-pants stories make sense of surprising, disconcerting, humorous, and enlightening episodes that problematize assumptions about shared mean-ings and ways of operating in organizational contexts (see Hagen, 1998). These stories disavow tendencies to stereotype on national culture and on business, managerial, or professional communication conventions and pra-ctices (e.g., Hagen, 1998; Hong & Engestrm, 2005; Jameson, 2007; Ortiz, 2005; Tebeaux, 1999). Furthermore, immigrants stories describe how different aspects of social identity, such as ethnic, professional, and familial sensemaking about self and work, affect and are affected by accul-turation, or the subjective sense of belonging (Pio, 2005).

In short, storytelling displays ongoing struggles between members of diverse social and organizational groupsdominant and marginalized, citizens and immigrants, professionals and unskilled workers, and so onas they attempt to fix meaning and influence everyday thinking, feeling, behaving, and navigating of discursive and material realities. Within sto-rytelling, individuals and groups position themselves through various discursive articulations of the self in first-person accounts of personal exp-erience, particularly as they make reference to preexisting master narratives



(Jorgenson, 2002, p. 357). Through discursive positioning, individuals claim identities by taking up positions in discourses and once having taken up a particular position, seeing the world from and speaking from the vantage point of that position (p. 358). Immigrants would position themselves discursively through complex negotiations of agency and resistance dependent on specific contexts, societal narratives, and diverse social and personal identity aspects, such as vocation, gender, ethnicity, national origin, and class (see Alvesson, 2003; Bird, 2007; Jameson, 2007; Jorgenson, 2002; Kuhn, 2006; Pal & Buzzanell, 2008; Pio, 2005).

Discourses of Immigration and Intercultural Workplace Communication

Individuals and groups position themselves discursively within particu-lar overarching Discourses that may be societal, gendered, professional, or other types of master narrative (Jorgenson, 2002; Putnam & Boys, 2006). These Discourses, or social formations, are powerful standardized models that are deeply embedded within particular cultures but also are reinvented within new circumstances (Alvesson & Krreman, 2000).

For immigrants, these narratives might be aligned with waves of people seeking refuge from political violence, economic downturns, human rights violations, poverty, starvation, and lack of opportunity (DeVitis & Rich, 1996). Immigrant discourses might also focus on the importance of work in their socialization into a new environment (Pio, 2005) or the impor-tance of education and learning how to navigate educational and social services in new environments (Carren, Drake, & Barton, 2005).

There are numerous typologies and systems for describing immigrants and others ventures into cocultural and intercultural experiences. Orbe (1996) offers communication strategies that are associated with co-cultural interactants different cultural and social identity positions. As Orbe (2001) states, his theory was designed to provide insight into the ways nondomi-nant members negotiate their societal positioning in organizations (Orbe, 1998) or intergroup relations (Orbe, 1997). However, given this base, it also represents a valuable tool to assess directly the communicative expe-riences of various groups (p. 2). Consistent with this second use, Orbe (1996) lists 12 strategies: avoidance (not getting involved), idealized com-munication (focusing on similarities not differences), mirroring (making cocultural identities less apparent through passing and other means), respectful communication (being polite), self-censorship (not confronting someone), extensive preparation (rehearsing conversations), countering stereotypes (avoiding stereotypical behaviors and situations), manipulating



stereotypes (conforming to stereotypes for personal gain), self-assured com-munication (letting accomplishments speak for themselves), increased vulnerability (displaying co-cultural presence), utilization of resources (calling on trusted individuals), and confrontational tactics (confronting others discourse). Use of these strategies is inconsistent and influenced by interactants typical ways of handling things and their preferred outcomes.

Still other researchers offer further frameworks for immigrants posi-tioning within communicative interactions and the new context as a whole. Salins (1997) says that successful processes must resemble volun-tary compromisenot only by the immigrants who want to belong but also by host country members. If either party is unwilling to facilitate the other, then participation in the new country is limited. To get to this point, Salins provides four steps involving immigrant and dominant groups: legitimacy (both groups believe that the other has a right to pursue work and participation in the new society), competence (immigrants are able to function efficiently in U.S. workplaces and social settings; the natives must not deter them), civic responsibility (immigrants are law abiding), and national or cultural identification (immigrants make their new locale a site of stronger identification than the old).

Processes of voluntary compromise are enabled and hindered by work-place members. Pio (2005) found that female Indian immigrants to New Zealand perceived their immigration processes to be marked by many challenges, including difficulties in attempts to secure employment, man-age workplace entry, maintain a healthy self-concept during the transi-tional phase to the host country, and balance family responsibilities with workplace identities. However, these Indian immigrants noted that work constituted the defining feature in their identity negotiations leading Pio to conclude that the crucible for ethnic identity negotiations was the work place (p. 1293).

Based on this study and others in this literature review, the following research question was developed: How do Caribbean immigrants position themselves and make sense of their workplace communication through their storytelling?

METHOD

Participants

Caribbean immigrants (n = 25) employed in the United States were recruited for this study (see Table 1). These immigrants came from



Table 1. Participant Pseudonyms and Characteristics

Participant Number and Pseudonym

Country of Origin

Number of

Years living in United States

Type of Work Done in

Country of Origin

Type of Work Done in United

States

1. Matthew St. Vincent 23 Salesman Manager 2. Evelyn Grenada 36 Nurse Resident nurse 3. Jennifer Guyana 20 Teacher Teacher 4. Pauline Guyana 27 N/A Teacher 5. Carlene Barbados 20 N/A Teller 6. Ulysses Trinidad Did not

indicateMechanic Parking attendant

7. Paul Trinidad 30+ N/A Customer care representative

8. Annette Trinidad 18 Nurse Clinical nurse director

9. Carol Trinidad 30 Did not indicate

Guidance counselor

10. Marva Dominica 27 Housewife Activities therapist11. Joanna Trinidad 8 N/A Financial associate12. Victor Antigua 9 Mentor Project engineer13. Maureen St. Lucia 19 N/A Clerk14. Audrey St. Kitts 27 Clerk Office manager15. Erica Dominica 14 N/A Cashier16. Kathleen Guyana 25+ N/A Education abroad

coordinator17. Marlon Jamaica 30 Accountant Senior VP18. Vincent Trinidad 10 N/A Pilot-First officer19. Suzette Jamaica 7 Operations

AssistantPhoto lab technician

20. Trevor Jamaica 20 N/A Mechanic21. Christopher Guyana 4 Teacher Teacher22. Leah Antigua 35 Librarian Director/deputy

director23. Christine Trinidad 12 Funeral Home

AssistantFuneral director

24. Susan Barbados 6 Salesperson Help desk administrator

25. Brent Jamaica 9 Clerk Project assistant

Note: N/A refers to individuals who migrated to the United States at a young age and, as such, never had employment in the West Indies. The sole exception was Joanna who never worked in Trinidad before coming to the United States as an undergraduate student. Pseudonyms were used to protect the identity of individuals, as many of their original names were indicative of which the era in which they were born and the Caribbean country from which they came.



English-speaking countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. At the time of this study, they had lived in the United States for 4 to 36 years (average of 19). There were 16 women (64%) and 9 men (36%).

Participants ages ranged from 18 to 65 years of age and older, with the majority (56%, n = 14) being 25 to 44 years. More than three quarters (88%, n = 22) listed themselves as Black, with the remainder describing themselves as other (8%, n = 2) or not listing any race/ethnicity (4%, n = 1). Most were single (60%, n = 15) or married/cohabitating (28%, n = 7). Most (76%, n = 19) had no dependents. About one fourth (24%, n = 6) had two or less. They were well educated, with college experience (16%, n = 4), college degrees (36%, n = 9), and graduate degrees or professional train-ing (32%, n = 8).

Immigrants employment industries varied: education, public service and government, health care, automotive, construction, transportation, utility, and funeral services. All were employed for at least 3 months, but more than 30% (32%, n = 8) had worked in their companies for 1 to 4 years (with another 16%, n = 4, listing their organizational tenure as 5-7 years). The rest had been with their current companies for more than 14 years, with the longest period of time being 35 years.

Procedures

Data-gathering techniques. A semistructured interview protocol was based on the first authors personal knowledge of West Indian immigrants to the United States, her self-identification as Caribbean, and the literature review. The protocol had three parts: Caribbean emigration to the United States, current work descriptions, and future plans regarding work and country of residence (see Appendix A). Within each part, there were at least five primary questions. These questions were of an open-ended nature, so that respondents would answer as they saw fit and elaborate on res-ponses. An accompanying questionnaire requested background information such as age, sex, job title, and country of origin (see Appendix B).

Upon Institutional Review Board approval, the first author began to recruit participants. Recruits represented different countries in the Caribbean but needed to consider English as their first language. Given variations on American and British English (see Scott, 2000), the first authors knowl-edge about linguistic choices and meanings were invaluable. The require-ment that participants consider English as a first language also was important



so that their stories would not be confounded by learning it as second lan-guage and their workplace entry delayed by such processes. Recruits also had to be employed by their companies for at least 3 months so that they would have had some time to learn the ropes and experience intercultural workplace communication. A further expectation was that prospective interviewees had to be residing in either New York or Florida, locations that hosted a large number of Caribbean immigrants (Camarota, 2005) and with whom the first author had many family members and friends. All had to be of U.S. legal standingno parties could be subject to legal rami-fications or discomfort by divulging their illegal statusas only those with legal standing could work at professional and skilled jobs.

As noted earlier, participants were recruited by means of a convenience sample through connections with the first authors friends and family members. As a result, participants formed an interconnected or networked Caribbean immigrant community in which members have shared their insights about workplace and other experiences in the United States in the past and readily agreed to engage in such discussions again and in more detail through interviews. It is in this sense that we conducted a case study of Caribbean immigrant storytelling that incorporates context and derives some solutions to workplace communication problems.

Most participants were interviewed in the comfort of their homes, although other locations that afforded privacy (e.g., conference rooms or office) and/or convenience (i.e., church or restaurant) also were used. Half (48%, n = 12) could not meet in person so phone interviews were con-ducted while the participants were in their homes. All were audiotaped with their permission.

While all the interviewees started conversing with the first author in a formal tone, as time progressed during the interview, many of them became comfortable and used colloquial expressions at times. Also, some partici-pants used incorrect grammar in order to sometimes highlight a point about a particular concept.

Interviews ranged in length from 18 to 80 minutes (with an average of 45 minutes). Interviews that fell in the 18- to 25-minute time frame were ones where questions and answers did not have to be repeated, rephrased, or elaborated on. In total, the interviews translated to 387 single-spaced pages of data, which were accompanied by 25 pages of field notes. Interview transcriptions and field notes used pseudonyms. Grammatical errors and colloquial expressions were untouched in order to retain participants con-textual meanings and idiomatic phrasings. Transcripts were double checked against audio recordings to ensure accuracy.



Data analysis. The constant comparative technique of grounded theory was utilized for the systematic gathering and inductive analysis of data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Snow & Anderson, 1993; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Data analysis began with open coding at the same time as the interviewing and transcribing processes. Open coding is the analytic process through which concepts are identified and their properties and dimensions are discovered in data (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 101). Both researchers proceeded to analyze all data separately then collaboratively. Both wrote individual memos of a generative nature and posed questions about what was happening. Other memos described commonalities and differences among participants reported experiences and linguistic choices. A third form of memoing occurred when both researchers looked for emergent themes in participants stories. These different memoing, data coding, and data reduction processes helped to construct, evaluate, add, and later reduce codes. Open codes were opportunities, work style, racism/prejudice, ignorance, false illusions, Caribbean work and work styles, assimilation tactics, future intentions, environment/cultural changes, identity changes, work experiences, cultural adjustment, and expectations.

Once initial memoing and open-coding processes were completed, axial coding was the next relevant step (i.e., the process of relating categories to their subcategories, termed axial because coding occurs around the axis of a category, linking categories at the level of properties and dimen-sions; Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 123). Words and other connections in the various transcriptions were used to identify concepts within and between them. At this point, the authors looked more closely at how par-ticipants positioned themselves discursively in their sensemaking stories. As a result, initial codes were combined and/or foregrounded to focus on the work context and participants understandings of self in intercultural encounters. The researchers met and phoned each other on several occa-sions to compare, contrast, and agree on emergent findings.

RESULTS

In response to our research question asking how Caribbean immigrants position themselves and make sense of their workplace communication through their storytelling, we found two discursive positionings: (a) within their cultural-moral narratives of the American Dream and (b) in stories that reproduce and resist specific intercultural workplace communication. Personal sensemaking stories broke down the monolithic cultural and moral narratives of the American Dream to display participants perceptions about,



communicative strategies for, and discursive self-positioning for handling their unique workplace experiences. They made sense of their experiences through invocation of difference discoursesrace, class, gender, and immi-grant status (see Jameson, 2007)and actively sought ways of asserting their agency materially and discursively.

Discursive Positioning Within the Cultural-Moral Narrative of the American Dream

Cultural stories provided the sociohistorical context in which Cari-bbean immigrants perceived that their workplace communication unfol-ded. Their discursive positioning of themselves within these stories enabled them to label themselves as successful in the United States and to present a moral tale in which their invocation of particular aspects they attributed to their nation of origin supplied them with special skills, values, and abilities.

Cultural stories provided the sociohis-torical context in which Caribbean immigrants perceived that their work-place communication unfolded.

Pursuing the ideal versus real American Dream. Participants described a dialectic interplay between: idealized or fantasized images of the United States acquired through media and their real American Dream by which they obtained educational, job, and economic benefits.

Every single research participant relatedwith humorthat they believed and anticipated finding evidence of idealized U.S. media depictions. Several interviewees said that they immigrated because of visions of wealth, an easy life, and a land of plentymythic stories that they them-selves perpetuated when they returned to their counties of origin (see Thomas-Hope, 1998). As Paul, a customer care representative, put it, there is no way to educate them [folks back home] . . . until they come and see for themselves. Interviewees repeatedly mentioned television shows such as Beverly Hills 90210 and The Cosby Show. Paul (also Vincent, Brent, and Joanna) recalled that, when migrating from Trinidad, he was very disappointed when his house was quite different from what



he had seen on TV: huge house, dreams, chauffeur limousines, stars walk in the street. . . . didnt see that. It was just a, it was a regular house. Over time, they developed more nuanced versions of the Dream. Erica, who works as a cashier, reflected that U.S. life was similar to and different from that in Dominica but noted that both were not easy: there was no bed of roses. You still had to work hard for what you want.

There was no bed of roses. You still had to work hard for what you want.

Second, with only one exception, our participants recounted that they and/or their parents migrated to have educational and job opportunities. In this regard, they were not disappointed. Even this one exception (Marva, an activity therapist in an elder care home) came because the United States afforded an opportunity for her to leave an abusive husband and start a new life for herself. The rest came to get my nurse certificate, my degree which we didnt have at that time in Trinidad (Annette, a regis-tered nurse; also Evelyn, a retired nurse originally from Grenada); to obtain a scholarship (Joanna, a corporate financial assistant); or specific university degrees (Brent, a project assistant; Audrey, an international studies office manager; Victor, an engineer); or to acquire the best training in an occupation:

There were no schools in the Caribbean that gave me the opportunity to pursue that [funeral service] career at a professional level so, I traveled to New York specifically because I really have wanted the best course possi-ble. (Christine, a funeral director)

Along with greater possibilities for education and training, economic reasons contributed to West Indians immigration. Christopher, a math teacher, was recruited by a U.S. Board of Education to lessen the high school teacher shortage. With the exchange rate of GUY $200 to US$1, he felt that this move would afford his family a better life. Others, such as Pauline, a teacher originally from Guyana, recognized that their par-ents took a chance to give them more than they themselves had had. Erica said that her parents thought that the employment opportunity in addi-tion to . . . secondary education were strong enough reasons to move



from Dominica. Although children were not always happy about being uprooted, as adults they all expressed appreciation for what the United States had to offer and have decided to stay (e.g., Vincent, Paul, Brent). As Evelyn said, I dont think I would have achieved all these things if I had remained home.

Third, to take advantage of opportunities and thrive in the U.S. envi-ronment, they positioned themselves as being able to adjust to, persevere, and exceed U.S. hard work ethics (Bernstein, 1997) and to incorporate special values they learned in the West Indies into their workplace com-munication. To achieve the American Dream with Caribbean sensibilities, they told a moral tale in which they worked hard but with compassion, humility, and equality.

In this third subtheme, most participants contrasted the U.S. lifestyle as more fast paced (24/7) than in the Caribbean. Matthew, an automotive manager from St. Vincent, lamented that people dont get no rest . . . have a life . . . dont have time to do anything:

It is from work to home to home to work. You doh have no free time. In the West Indies its different. You go to work at 8 and at 4, you break off. . . . Most places in the West Indies, on weekends, everything shuts down. In the U.S., its not so, its different.

Like Matthew, Trevor, a mechanic, also believed that U.S. society is fast paced and work oriented. Trevor said, if we were back home we could get off work and go relax and get a drink, go to the beach on a work day, after work day all the stuff where you cant do it here.

While participants constructed Caribbean and American work and life environments as different in spatiotemporal orientations, most also positioned themselves as resilient and adaptable. They saw themselves (and claimed to be perceived as) as hard workers. Victor, a project engi-neer, stated, In the Caribbean its Caribbean time, you know, its slow paced. I have adjusted to the pace of life and you know, so that is not a factor anymore. Ive adjusted totally to what needs to be done. Matthew said that U.S. citizens are laid back, but situated in a fast-paced world. He remarked, with pride, because of how they [West Indians] were brought up, they tend to struggle for what they want and achieve. Maureen, a government clerk, also maintained that West Indians are determined to succeed: tasks are completed . . . within a proper fashion. Trevor believed that his coworkers recognized his strong work ethics:



I dont like to boast or brag, but they see me as a hard worker . . . I dont like to wait on people to tell me something. I will just go and do it if some-thing needs to be done, yeah.

In these stories, participants expressed their beliefs that West Indian cultural discourses told a moral tale of Caribbean people as being resourceful, successful, and adaptable. They maintained that they were successful in their new environment because they were taught from an early age to seize challenges but do so in the Caribbean way. Marlon, an entre-preneur who came from Jamaica, said: coming from the Caribbean . . ., I was not afraid of challenges, and whether one was black or white . . . there was nothing that was impossible. Their moral tale of Caribbean peoples superior work values enabled them to position themselves as having greater courtesy, respect for others, and compassion in contrast to the values and workplace communication of their U.S. colleagues. Leah, a librarian/director of media resources who originally was from Antigua, indicated that her peers and direct reports could not understand why she had such good relations with auxiliary, especially low level, staff:

They were White and I was Black . . . I used to sit with the cleaning work-ers. I guess they thought that I was not acting my status . . . I used to work for $2.70 an hour . . . So I know about all those things.

In these stories, participants expressed their beliefs that West Indian cultural discourses told a moral tale of Caribbean people as being resourceful, successful, and adaptable.

Vincent, a pilot for a major airline who emigrated from Trinidad, uti-lized the laid-back approach and very calm approach that he called a Caribbean thing as one thing that I bring to the table in a very stress-ful work environment.

In summary, West Indian immigrants made sense of their experiences and told stories that positioned themselves as successful within an American Dream that originally was a fantasy but that became more realistic over time. They recreated a cultural story of economic, educational, and job



opportunities of which they perceived themselves as deserving not only because they worked hard but also because they, as Caribbean immigrants (moral tale), remained mindful of values such as humility, care, compas-sion, and courtesy with which they infused their workplace communica-tion. Their positioning within these cultural and moral narratives seemed to provide a discursive foundation on which they developed their specific workplace communication.

Discursive Positioning to Reproduce and Resist Workplace Communication

As already noted, all participants discursively positioned themselves within cultural and moral tales of the American Dream. However, the monolithic nature of the American Dream broke down when they des-cribed their workplace communication. Here, they told about their experi-ences with and handling of workplace communication simultaneously marked by racism/prejudice based on color, immigrant status, and class as well as others acknowledgement of their abilities, hard work, and talents. When they perceived treatment as negative, they learned how to overtly and covertly resist others depictions and treatment of them. When they viewed their treatment as positive, they did their best to enact and encour-age similar workplace communication, mostly by excelling at their work, downplaying noticeable differences, and helping others like themselves. In their stories about their workplace communication, Caribbean immi-grants positioned themselves as agents who could strategically invoke productive identities (see Pal & Buzzanell, 2008) and use Orbes (1996) cocultural communication strategies.

First, many research participants recounted experiences of racism and prejudice in U.S. workplaces. They perceived their experiences to be ironic insofar as forms of racism and prejudice contradict the ideals for which the United States stands. They engaged in a number of discursive strategies to deal with their (sometimes) unmet expectations for fair treat-ment and with different forms of subtle and overt racism (for overviews, see Hall & Carter, 2006). In their cocultural interactions, they often engaged in confronting others, countering stereotypes, emphasizing simi-larities, mirroring, and engaging in self-assured communication (Orbe, 1996). In these negative episodes, they portrayed their workplace experi-ences as lacking the basic ingredient that Salins (1997) says is necessary for immigrants acculturation, namely, voluntary compromise by both par-ties but mostly, in their cases, host country members.



Some believed they experienced racism in subtle doses, while for oth-ers it was blatant. Susan, a help desk administrator, thought that the United States would be free of prejudice:

The U.S. was similar in it was a lot bigger and more advanced than Barbados, but different in the way how I perceived it as just like a place where you could just be free and be free from prejudice and stuff like that. But I realized that, thats not true.

Matthew discussed his personal experiences of racism that he perceives as preventing him from assimilating fully (i.e., he sees himself as a dev-alued immigrant based on ethnicity and country of origin; see Montreuil & Bourhis, 2001; see also Hall & Carter, 2006):

People in the Caribbean make less money . . . You and a White man go for the same job, he will get a higher pay than you . . . You have two guysBlack guy and a White guy going for a job. Black guy has more credentials. White man goes to prison. Two of them go to the same job. The White man got the job, even though he have a prison record. I just showing you that. Color play a part in this.

Christine, a Trinidadian who, as head of my class in mortuary science, was the only student that was summa cum laude, was shut out of positions, despite her credentials:

I had every award under my belt that the school had to offer and other chapters of funeral service had to offer. Yet with all of those credentials and with all of those things behind me when people spoke to me and realized that I was of Caribbean descent, they could not follow through with the offers that I was initially given.

Even later on, Christine experienced racism. When asked if there were ways in which she changed to fit into the U.S. workplace, she admitted using a wig to maintain job security:

I loved a nice free Afro. Thats my hairstyle, thats my true hairstyle, they have never seen it. Every time they see me, I have straight hair thats down to my back. I wear a wig or I wear weaves and do this to go to work . . . they never saw my real hair, and there is one time I decided, look I just want to be free today, and went in with the Afro. And I got a different reaction. In one case it wasnt but 2 weeks later, suddenly they found the reason to tell me that the relationship wasnt working. My track record, everything was perfect but [when] . . . that Afro came out, things changed.



Although Christine now is in a high-status position in another organiza-tion, she is not sure how her peers would react to an Afro: I am not going to risk that, not just yet.

For Suzette, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States, racism marked her first job when she was the only one questioned by her boss about miss-ing money:

He said, were missing $100. Could you check in your pocket and see if you put it in there by accident. So Im like, okay, you didnt ask anybody else but me. I was like, I asked for payment for the 2 weeks [gave notice], and that was it. But they found the money. They found the money, and they did apologize to me.

For Suzette, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States, racism marked her first job when she was the only one questioned by her boss about missing money.

She continued, they singled me out with their false accusation. Joanna has found it difficult to get placement in the U.S. corporate world but is unsure about how to react:

I just dont get it, . . . once youre qualified, everybody on the same level, . . . I dont think it is targeted. I just think that may be because you know, dont find so many colored people. I dont know, maybe a lot of people of color dont really look for such roles that I like in finance, . . . I find, I am still kind of confused because I am not sure if its just me and my own insecurities . . . But sometimes I do observe, that they speak to certain people, about certain things, whether youre available and stuff, but I am still, you know, like they dont really reach out to you, youre reaching out to them. . . . as of now, I still feel like I havent proven myself. I havent been given an opportunity to prove . . .

Thus, Caribbean immigrants try to make sense of and position them-selves as worthy of jobs for which they have trained and worked harda sensemaking and identity work process that Pios (2005) Indian immi-grants to New Zealand also expressed.



However, our participants also talked about workplace communication, sponsorship, and opportunities that they worked hard to obtain. In these stories, they engaged in many of Orbes (1996) cocultural identity and communication constructions depending on their situations: idealized communication, mirroring, respectful communication, countering stereo-types, self-assured communication, increased vulnerability, utilization of resources, and confrontational tactics. For instance, Leah identified strongly with her work and spoke with pride about being both coordinator and recipient of a scholarship program that John F. Kennedy Jr. had asked her to run. Being an immigrant, she understood how others felt and the strug-gles they went through:

It was great because I was an expert. And I dont mean that in a boasting way. But, I was the returning student. I was the single mother. I was the immigrant. So they let me do whatever I wanted to do. I formed the pro-gram, I fashioned it.

She remarked that her leadership and hard work helped provide the results that both she and the program administrators wanted.

Audrey, a St, Kitts native, who works in an international office in a university, also chose a job about which she felt passionate and committed:

I thought that would be a great opportunity for me to work with students, international students like myself and so I can be there to give them a good experience for being new into the country and somebody they can turn to when they need to talk about home . . . and just be a guide for them in the new environment into which they came.

Audrey perceived that it was her identification with those she served as well as her hard work and ability to seize opportunities that earned her res-pect and success in her workplace. These ideas are echoed, albeit somewhat differently, by Marlon:

The primary focus, and the reason for the company, was to create and build the resort development in the Caribbean where we primarily focused on beachfront properties. I saw where the opportunity could create a financial independence for not just me but also for my family. And its quite an extraordinary undertaking, however being one that is always willing to take on challenging and one that always thinks out of the box.

Others exerted agency in their workplace communication throughdif ferent strategies such as by adapting their accents and attire and by



con fronting unfair workplace practices (see Pal & Buzzanell, 2008; see also Orbe, 1996). Many participants reported positioning themselves in different ways depending on their colleagues. Joanna listed how she tries to fit in:

(laughs) You know, people back home very flashythe orange shirts and the red shirts and the yellow shirts. I tried to tone down the way I dress up, kind of like stick to like mainly colorsthe blue, the brown, the gray, the navy blue.

Joanna also indicated her vocal adaptations:

Even sometimes, you know, I catch myself, giving and speaking with my colleagues and stuff you know, I would slip into the American accent, just because I feel I would be more accepted, you know.

Joanna struggled to figure out ways to gain acceptance in her workplace, and as such, strategically invoked identities, such as someone who networks and can handle people:

I . . . go to lunch with them and not just isolate myself and have my lunch in my cube, you know, because I think also too, the higher ups see me socialize with my peers, they will be like okay, you know, she can socialize and stuff like that.

Trevor, a utility company mechanic formerly from Jamaica, also indi-cated that he exerts effort to construct an appropriate identity through strategic self-positioning:

I have a very strong accent . . . I will try to go to the point of trying to speak proper and . . . make sure that, you know, the image I show, that people will take me seriously. I relate to in a sense, always my dressing, you know, coming to the work, you have to come looking professional.

Speaking proper was how some immigrants said that they changed in order to interact with colleagues. Victor indicated that the only thing he changed was his slang:

I had to . . . get rid of using so much Caribbean slang on a day to day, just so that, you know, theyll understand me and Ill understand them . . . communi-cation is the key, and they have to understand what I say the first time I say it.

When asked if this change bothered him, he indicated, No, doesnt bother me at all. Like I said, theres nothing wrong with it. Pauline would



agree. She said that she switches between Caribbean and American accents based on her cocultural interactions and her desires to accommodate oth-ers (see Giles, 1973): Its just a reaction because thats whats appropriate for that time. Maureen indicated that she accommodates her peers by changing her tone of speech as well as formality levels. The St. Lucian native stated that the reasoning behind that is because often times in order to avoid questioning or to make them maybe feel more at ease. Audrey (and Carlene, a bank teller originally from Barbados) also stated that she changed her tone to facilitate workplace relationships.

In cocultural exchanges Caribbean immigrants told stories where they strategically downplayed differences and looked for situations in which they could display more of their culture. However, when they were accused falsely of wrongful behavior, such as in Suzettes case, they confronted the situations (Orbe, 1996).

Caribbean immigrants stories of work-place communication were complex and nuanced in ways that simultane-ously portrayed sensemaking, resis-tance, complicity, and agency.

Caribbean immigrants stories of workplace communication were com-plex and nuanced in ways that simultaneously portrayed sensemaking, resistance, complicity, and agency. For instance, Marva said she decided to do child care work because she anticipated that her boss would get to know her well and then would sponsor her. She met resistance in her work-place about sponsorship as well as about expected salary increases:

After a while you know, I said to the lady, you know, I want to be spon-sored. I know what I want, you know, shy as I am I know, but I know what I want. You know, after a while. She said to me sponsored? I said yes, you can sponsor me because you are American. She said, I have to think about that. So I said, think about it.

As a matter of fact, when I first came, she said, OK, I am going to give you such and such amount of money, and I said, is that all you are going to give me? She said, yes. She said, but after 6 months I will give you a raise. I said fine. . . . When that 6 months came, this lady didnt mention a word to me to give me a raise. . . . I said OK, let this 6 months go over a week . . . I cant be too greedy. Let me see what happens. Seven months



came, and she is not saying a word to me. I said, Mrs. Goldwater, didnt you tell me that when I first came you were going to give me a raise after 6 months She said, Oh, yes, I did. So arent you satisfied with what I am doing for you? I said, No, I want a raise. God, Trini [shortened version of country name to refer to the first author], wouldnt you believe, the lady coming to me in 2 weeks and telling me that she is giving 10 dollars. I said, Mrs. Goldwater, look at me. Do you see F on my forehead for fool? She said, what the heck you being like that. I said I asked you to look at me. Do you see an F on my forehead? She said, I do not understand what you mean. I said, Guess what, if you see an F there, its not for Fool, its for Food. I said, 10 dollars, why you insulting me. . . . I said, OK, Ill take that 25 dollars for the time being. But when you going to give another raise? I said to her, when are you going to give another raise? She said, Well Marva, lets see what happens. I said, OK, lets see what happens.

But then, when I asked her to sponsor me, and she started. I said, Marva, keep your behind quiet. . . . I came to her door one day and said, I said, Mrs. Goldwater, I find somebody in Jersey who can sponsor me, so I am going to be leaving you. She said, No no no no, Marva, no no no. Dont do that, dont do that. If they can do that for you, I can do it, too. . . . Since I had the papers, I swear, I said, OK, sign the papers. Because I wasnt going to let her get away with it. Then she signed the papers, and she sponsored me. And thats how I got sponsored.

In her complete story, Marva described how she needed to explain pragmatic, political, and cultural aspects of immigration to her employer. She described how she tailored her message and style to be persuasive, much as Herricks (1999) participants persuasively and strategically ada-pted to their audiences. Marva had already positioned herself as indis-pensable to her employer through a system of favors, acquisition of sym-bolic capital, good work, and compromise (e.g., when her boss failed to provide adequate remuneration for her labor, and she decided to bide her time rather than arguing further).

However, when Marva realized that her boss would not be forthcoming in sponsorshipher real goalshe confronted her boss. Her negotiation strategy involved a willingness to cut her losses and locate a new place of employment where her interests, needs, and desires could be better con-sidered and met. Because her employer needed her services, Mrs. Goldwater agreed to Marvas conditions.

Marvas story, like those of our other Caribbean immigrants, not only enabled her to make sense of and account for others actions but also dis-played how she says she shaped her workplace communication to bring into reality that which she wanted, namely, sponsorship for U.S. citizenship



(see Bird, 2007). With the first author as listener to Caribbean immigrants stories, Marva and others discursively positioned themselves not only as survivors of racism/prejudice but also as expert cocultural interactants and agents in creating their own destinies.

Discussion

This research is presented as a case study of Caribbean immigrants stories of their experiences in U.S. workplaces and the importance of context. According to Sillince (2007), the impact of context on workplace behavior has been underappreciated while, in at the same time, research-ers talk about discourse as being situated. Context, in our case, is the cur-rent socio-political-economic landscape of immigration and the workplaces in which our participantsall friends and family members of the first author residing in areas of highest concentration of Caribbean immigrants to the United Statesmake sense of, engage with, resist, comply, and exert agency through their specific episodes of intercultural workplace com-munication.

Within this context, Caribbean immigrants related two tasks that they had to accomplish. First, they discursively positioned themselves within an American Dream that shifted from an idealized myth to an attainable space of opportunity and rewards for hard work. Second, they shifted from a monolithic cultural and moral narrative to stories of their self-positioning in their specific workplaces through different cocultural strategies, tactics for accommodating or confronting others, resistances to diverse but (some-times) unproductive identity invocations by others, and agency.

In examining how they accomplished their tasks, they all integrated themselves into an American immigrant story and then displayed how they understood themselves in their intercultural workplaces. They noted that they brought some different work styles, understanding of spatiotemporal work rhythms, and work values to their employment situations, but they also analyzed their situations to make sense of how to best proceed. In some cases, they tried out different kinds of attire, hairstyles, accented English, and employer or peer confrontational strategies (e.g., for salary increases). Those who did not discuss how they positioned themselves strategically as accommodating or resisting others workplace communi-cation were employed in contexts where their immigrant status and pro-fessional training helped them at their jobs (e.g., counseling international students, finding funding for immigrants and the working poor, and



handling a multicultural and/or stressful workforce). In this regard, their professional, educational, and self-perceived hard worker identities were more salient and fluid than national and ethnic aspects of their identities (see Jameson, 2007).

Limitations

There are some limitations worth noting. First, participants stories were retrospective accounts of their decisions to immigrate, of their work-place experiences, and of their sensemaking about their own discursive positioning. As a result, we did not observe them in their workplaces although the first author had knowledge of their interactions within their friendship, family, and neighborhood communities. Although retrospec-tive, they were able to provide very specific details about their encounters in intercultural workplace situations as well as about how they felt, reacted, thought, and behaved in incidents that sometimes were years earlier. Second, we collected individuals accounts of their workplace communi-cation rather than asking their employers, coworkers, or direct reports for their perspectives about these individuals self-positioning and intercul-tural exchanges. Such additional data would have provided insights about how (and why) cocultural strategies were perceived within particular con-texts. Finally, we collected data through interviews whose very nature might have prompted some of our interviewees to respond based on assumptions about the researchers purposes, relationships with interviewees, and other factorsmeaning that the context of the interview might have prompted the cultural, moral, identity, and communication strategy scripts we encoun-tered (see Alvesson, 2003). As Alvesson (2003) notes, these interview scripts and stories are not untrue but may reduce the variation and prompt socially desirable aspects found in this study. We argue that the first authors prior relationship with and personal connections with Caribbean immigrant communities in New York and Florida might have helped us to obtain varied scripts and stories.

Implications

In future research, it would be useful to sort through connections among national and regional discourses of immigration and specific immigrants and organizational members actual communication in their workplaces. Understanding immigrants organizational and occupational assimilation and socialization could help researchers develop more complex accounts



of these processes as well as provide productive strategies for newcomers and their associates (e.g., Allen, 2000).

With regard to practical implications, participants noted that there were ways in which members of their workplace could assist them in their adjustment to a new job and country. Several indicated that, for their transition into the workforce, the possibility of having a mentor to guide them through the process would have been a welcome one (for other strategies, see Allen, 2000). They also brought up the need to understand sponsorship issues better. Hence, employers (and commu-nity center leaders) could make a concerted effort to have workshops geared toward international employees learning about the basics of the sponsorship process, as well as the criteria needed to become sponsored. Regular assessments could be provided, including the status of sponsor-ship application files and the type of assistance that would enable them to best proceed.

With regard to practical implications, participants noted that there were ways in which members of their work-place could assist them in their adjust-ment to a new job and country.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our case study of Caribbean immigrants stories dis-played first how they discursively positioned themselves within ideal-istic images and realistic aspects of the American Dream, particularly as these aspects related to their workplace experiences. After producing this cultural and moral story, they diverged from common scripts to discuss their own personal experiences and discursive positioning within their workplace communication. They described ways in which they strategically invoked productive identities as they resisted, adapted to, and exerted agency in their work situations through a variety of cocultural techniques and understandings of themselves as intercultural encounter participants.



APPENDIX AInterview Protocol

Part ICaribbean Emigration to the United States

Q1. Why did you come to the United States?Q2. Who came with you to the United States?Q3. How was the United States similar and/or different to what you

expected?Q4. How long after you arrived in the United States did you get your first

job?Q5. Tell me about this job.Q6. Were you surprised about anything in this job?Q7. How long did you stay in this job?Q8. What helped you learn how to do this job?

Part IICurrent Work Descriptions

Q9. Tell me about your current job.Q10. What made you choose this particular organization?Q11. How would you describe your current work environment?Q12. What do you think about the people you work with? (Provide examples)Q13. What do you think your coworkers think about you? (Provide examples)Q14. How do you feel you have changed since being part of the U.S. work-

force? (Examples of before and now)Q15. Were you employed in any Caribbean countries? If so, which ones? What

was it like to be employed in this (these) country (ies)?Q16. If you were not employed in a Caribbean country before you started

work in the United States, what experiences or memories you may have of the Caribbean workplace through friends or family members?

Q17. Do you feel that your peers had a preconceived notion about you coming from the Caribbean? Why or why not? How did it make you feel? How did this affect your identity?

Q18. Have you felt that the period of time you have stayed in the States influ-enced the ways you interact with your colleagues or the ways you have done different procedures in the workplace? Why or why not?

Q19. What work tactics or strategies are typical to the Caribbean that you cur-rently use in your job?

Q20. Do you feel that you had to change the way you presented yourself in front of your colleagues in order to fit in the workplace? Can you give an example? How did you feel about it after?

(continued)



Part IIIFurther Plans in the United States

Q21. What made you decide to stay in the United States?Q22. What could the people you work with or your organization have done to

make your transition to work in the United States easier?Q23. What would you change about work in the United States?Q24: Do you intend to stay in the United States? If so, why?Q25. Do you feel that I have left anything out of our discussion? Is there any-

thing else you would like to add?

If not, thank you for sharing your time and your experiences with me.

APPENDIX BDemographic Background Questionnaire

Thank you for participating in this research project. Please check off the most appropriate response for each question, or fill in the blanks where necessary. Completion is voluntary. If there are any questions that make you feel uncomfort-able, you are free to skip those questions. There is no penalty for what you do not complete. However, this information is vital for data interpretation, so we hope that you will complete all questions.

1. What is your sex?___ Male___ Female

2. What is your age?___ Younger than 18 years___ 18-24 years___ 25-34 years___ 35-44 years___ 45-54 years___ 55-64 years___ 65 years and older

3. What is the last grade or class you completed in school?___ No formal education___ Grades 1 to 8___ High school graduate (Grade 12 or GED certificate)___ Business, technical, or vocational school AFTER high school___ Some college, but no 4-year degree

APPENDIX A (continued)

(continued)



___ College graduate (BS, BA, or other 4-year degree)___ Postgraduate training/professional school after college___ Other (please specify):

4. What is your race?___ White___ Black___ Asian___ Mixed race___ Other (please specify):

5. Are you now employed full-time, part-time, retired, or not employed for pay? (Check as many as apply to you)

___ Full-time___ Part-time___ Retired/not employed___ Employed for benefits but not monetary wages___ Student___ Entrepreneur (owns company)___ Other (please specify):

6. How long have you worked for your company? _____years 7. What is your job title? ________________________________ 8. For what industry do you work?___ Administration/Support___ Automotive___ Health care___ Education___ Public service/Government___ Human resources___ Corporate___ Retail___ Sales___ Technology___ Transportation___ Other (please specify):

9. Do you telecommute?____ No____ Yes

(a) If yes, do you telecommute on a part-time or full-time basis?___ Part-time___ Full-time

APPENDIX B (continued)

(continued)



(b) Also, from what location do you telecommute?___ Satellite office___ Home___ Other location (please specify)

10. What is your marital status?___ Single___ Married/cohabitating___ Divorced___ Separated11. Do you have any dependents living with you?___ No___ Yes (If yes, how many? ______)12. What is your total family income from all sources?____ less than US$20,000____ US$20,000 to $40,000____ US$40,000 to $60,000____ US$60,000 to $80,000____ US$80,000 or more13. From which Caribbean country did you come when you immigrated to

the United States? _____________________________14. How long have you been an immigrant to the United States? ___________

years15. Are you a U.S. resident?___ No___ Yes16. Are you a U.S. citizen?___ No___ Yes

Thank you!

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Documents

Caribean Immigrants Discourses