Economic Integration And Caribbean Identity Summary

There is long history of attempts at economic integration among the countries in the Caribbean region. The differences between the developed countries and under-developed countries economically and politically alter the integration dynamics of a country in the global market. Emilio Pantojas García, in his paper “Economic Integration and Caribbean Identity: Convergences and Divergences”, describes the geopolitical, economic, and cultural-historical factors that influence the fostering of a regional identity and how this shared Caribbean identity functions as an agonist and anti-agonist to the economic integration of the Caribbean. This paper is focused on analyzing the chain of arguments put forward by the author for stating that the economic

This geopolitical view of the regions, in turn, became institutionalized with the creation of Regional Science that further constructed smaller, geographically, and historically similar places in to sub-regions. The African Diaspora created by slavery along with European settler constituted the plantation economies with analogous political and social cultures (56). An appropriate example is the Cuban santería and the Haitian voodoo (57). Although similar in historical and anthropological manner, these two religions have distinct analogous living experiences for the people and are therefore, different. People of the countries that border the Caribbean Basin marginalize in defining themselves not as Caribbean but as Andean, Central American or North American (Mexico) (62). Owing to the political and economic multitude of variables in discussing the Caribbean identity, the author rightfully quotes Gordon K. Lewis expostulating the existence of a shared Caribbean identity. Despite the absence of a shared identity, which could forge mutual trust between countries and theoretically fasten the process, there were many efforts for the economic integration in the

The author points out that regional planning and coordination was no longer the means of integration, but rather free market competition- free from any government intervention. García is good at providing relevant and ample examples to make sure his arguments are on point and reflects a careful insight to the matter at hand. The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in 1994 had high initial enthusiasm for regional cooperation, but it only focused on achieving modest milestones in specific areas such as transport, tourism and trade (61). Xenophobic biases against the migrant groups, seen between the Dominicans and the Haitians, and the similarity in the economic conditions of the Caribbean countries (in terms of tourism and agriculture) pose threat to any regional cooperation and integration