A new survey claims that Caribbean immigrants in the United States are far less well-off in recent years than native born Americans. The survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center analysed data from 1996 to 2002 and showed that the 2001 recession and the subsequent jobless recovery had a more severe impact on minority households. This has raised concerns that the prospects for Caribbean immigrants and their children will be grim regardless to whether President George W. Bush or the Democrat challenger John Kerry wins the US Presidential elections on Tuesday. Although the survey dealt mainly with the wealth gap between whites and Hispanics in the United States, it pointed to evidence that Caribbean immigrants are not doing much better than their Hispanic counterparts. Most significantly, the report said that the net worth of non-Hispanic Black households in 2002 was just under $6,000 compared to more than $88,000 for White households. The report also showed that between 1999 and 2001, the net worth of non-Hispanic Black households fell by 27 percent while the net worth of non-Hispanic white households increased by two percent. The report said there are many reasons for the growing gap including limited access to financial markets and greater barriers to home ownership. The results of the report came as no surprise to some Caribbean academics in the United States and some feel the policies adopted by the Bush administration are largely to blame. Bush policies Dr Marcia Magnus, a Jamaican, who teaches at the University of Miami and heads a public policy think-tank called the Caribbean American Political Action Committee, said the people who benefited most under the Bush administration were the wealthy. She was quoted by the Caribbean Media Corporation news agency as saying the Bush administration “has absolutely no sensitivity for the needs of people who are clearly going to the worst schools, less likely to have health care, can't pay for medication and so on..." Dr Magnus was not particularly optimistic about the prospects under a Democrat leader either, however she did point out that the Democrats seem to have shown more concern over the issues of poverty and opportunity. Trinidad-born academic Dr Anthony Bryan said it was clear that the long-term performance of first and second generation Caribbean immigrants seemed not to be as good as their parents. Dr Bryan said the children of immigrants lose the zeal to succeed and don't have all values that come with the strength of a family support system as they mirror some other American minority groups and begin to under perform in school. While he believes immigrants would have greater chances for wealth creation if some public capital funds are redirected to training the young, he felt it was up to Caribbean immigrants to play a more active part in America's political culture. He said: "the Caribbean Diaspora has to be activated like the Cuban American lobby and change their psychology of just being Caribbean people and not even bothering to vote at elections." SOURCE: BBCCARIBBEAN.COM