Hi all, I am brand new, and I am starting my search for the island that I want to live/work on. I have 20 yrs government admin experience, 6 yrs sales, and two degrees, one AAS in retail management, one BABS in Marketing and Business Administration. Any suggestions? I need one that I could find work, live fairly inexpensively, and bring my mixed child to without race relation hassles. Low crime rate is also a high priority.

I am on a couple of other chat sites, but am not looking for romance, I need the right island for me to live on first.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Can't help you I'm afraid, but I am sure there is someone out there who can.

Good luck

Michelle

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A wonderful place to live

Hi Newtosoca,

I would suggest that you do lots of research. Not only are the islands different but the areas on each island are different too.

I'm mixed race (father black Jamaican, mother white English) and I felt very uncomfortable in some areas in Jamaica when I was there. We were actually told by Jamaican family and friends that there were certain areas in Kingston we had to avoid. That was 10 years ago and hopefully things have changed for the better. In Jamaica is also seemed to depend on which class you were in - the wealthy people mixed happily and were all colours. We were also told (and I'm not sure if this is still around) that people thought more of the people that had the lighter skin colour.

My cousins are going back to Jamaica but country areas rather than Kingston.

Regards,
Karen

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The lighter skin color thing happens almost everywhere. Egyptian tombs contain skin-lightening creams. Historically, people who worked outside, in the fields, had darker skin because of sun exposure, and those that worked indoors, in higher level jobs, had lighter skin. This bias got transferred to natural skin color, rather than sticking to whether one had a dark tan or not.

A friend of mine traveled around the islands extensively and finally settled in Barbados. The first day in Barbados, she got on a 'zed-R' (a pick up truck with bench seats along the sides and a canopy roof that serves as a bus - named after their license plates which begin with ZR), and everyone had a book they were reading as they rode along. That decided her, because reading wasn't a general pastime on any of the other islands she had visited.

Anyway, to get permanent residency, she had to start a company and employ some local people for a set amount of time.

In Nigeria I've been told it's the other way around. My cousins are mixed race - Nigerian / English and they have experienced that in Nigeria the darker the skin the 'better'.

Regards,
Karen

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As for the lady that started a business in Barbados, what kind of business was it? I have bandied about the idea to start one too, but not sure what to offer. How did she decide what to offer, and what was startup cost?