Barbados Emigration and Immigration

Online Resources

 * 1607-1707 The Original Scots Colonists of Early America. Supplement 1607-1707 at Ancestry, ($), index and images
 * 1611-1707 The Original Scots Colonists of Early America. Caribbean Supplement 1611-1707 at Ancestry, ($), index and images
 * 1612-1783 The Original Scots Colonists of Early America, 1612-1783 at Ancestry, ($), index and images
 * 1654-1686 Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654 - 1686, index
 * 1637-1800 Caribbean, English Settlers in Barbados, 1637-1800 at Ancestry, ($), index and images
 * 1670 Carolina - The Barbadian Settlers, 1670 Ships lists: Carolina - Port Royal and the Three Brothers
 * 1679 "List of tickets granted to people leaving the island in 1679" in "The dispatches of Governor, Sir Jonathan Atkins, relating to the population of the island of Barbados, A.D. 1679-1680"
 * 1775-1825 Irish Emigrants in North America, 1775-1825 at Ancestry, ($), index and images
 * 1812 List of persons seeking passports to travel from New York to Barbados, 1812
 * 1813-1834 Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 at Ancestry, ($), index and images
 * Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
 * The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700, with Their Ages, the Localities Where They Formerly Lived in the Mother Country, the Names of the Ships in which They Embarked, and Other Interesting Particulars; from MSS. Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England, images Indexed at Ancestry ($)
 * Omitted Chapters from Hotten's Original Lists of Persons of Quality ... and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations at Ancestry, ($), index and images.
 * Immigrant Servants Database

Background
The British that first landed in Barbados recorded that there were no persons living in Barbados at the time of landing at James Town in the 17th century. The British Government next sent large numbers of persons from Scotland and Ireland to the island, many were indentured servants sent in order to work off or settle debts owed to the British Government.

In the years that followed, Jewish migrants from the then Dutch controlled areas of modern-day Brazil sought safe passage to Barbados. As the Jewish community brought their advanced agricultural technology to Barbados, plantations boomed with introduction of Sugar cane. This led to large groups of African people being brought to Barbados as slaves. Large numbers of African descendants began to outnumber the Europeans, who were represented by large numbers of Irish people from Ireland was then under British rule.

Many European immigrants came to Barbados in the 19th and early 20th centuries: the French, Germans, Austrians, Greeks, Italians, Portuguese and Russians emigrated to the island to escape World War II and the Cold war.

In the years that followed other groups of Europeans, East Indians, and a small number of Asians developed their own communities in Barbados in the late 20th century.

Many Barbadians now live overseas and outside of Barbados; the majority have migrated to Anglophone countries, including 37,780 Barbadians in Canada, some 19,000 in the United Kingdom, around 65,000 in the United States and some 500–1,000 Barbadians in Liberia. In addition to Anglophone countries other groups of Barbadians have moved to Latin countries including Brazil, Cuba and Panama.