History of Migration and General Profile

In South American countries, Sikhs were pioneer immigrants except for Chile where Sindhis were the first. In Central America including the Caribbean's, Surinam and Guinea, the first Indians were from UP, Bihar and possibly South India as indentured labour. Migration in several countries of Latin America has been traced to the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. A reference is available of a Sikh's arrival in Argentina in 1890's. Sikhs came either as direct passengers mainly on ships via Europe or because they were not allowed to disembark at the USA ports. The later resulted in transit stay in various intermediate destinations before settling down in the final destination of their choice. Many Sikhs walked from Brazil to Argentina while others walked still longer distances from Panama to Argentina via Peru and Bolivia. This phase of travel in several cases was even tougher than the sea voyage. It involved walking over thousands of miles in tough terrain with little familiarity of local language and customs and with limited funds. One has to look at the map and the terrain to understand the hardship involved - it really sends shivers in the spine. In Latin America, the more popular destinations for long term settlement were Argentina, and Panama. Mexico was always a target country to settle in but with the aim of crossing the Rio Grande at the first possible opportunity. USA was and still is the El Dorado for almost all Punjabi-Sikh migrants. There are several illegal immigrants in recent years and some have been fraudulently brought to South American destinations against the promised North America entry. In 1990's Belize became a popular destination for migration. Since Belize is not very well connected for air travel, some of these migrants have had to charter small aircraft (from Cuba) to reach Belize. What enterprise! Single girls are also venturing out wherever opportunity arises. Two young girls from Punjab have gone to Belize as students but are now running a sort of a 'dhabha' in a small town hoping to migrate to USA one day. There are instances of high handedness by the police and immigration authorities but once you have left the country, there is no turning back in most of the cases whether the immigrant likes the situation he or she has got into. There is an instance of a Sikh who had been sponsored by his brothers from USA. This guy was asked to come to Belize where a white woman came from USA for less than a day. In a few hours after arrival, she got married to the Sikh based on which she sought his immigration to USA. This was achieved after prolonged legal battle. The immigrants' preferred profession originally was to work on farms graduating in time to buying their own farmland. Others worked in Railways in various capacities or in Sugar Mills or as in Panama, at the Canal. Some of them drove vehicles and taxis eventually buying their own wheels eventually setting up large transport conglomerates. Still others carried out 'Pheri' i.e., retail as paddlers and in time set up small size supermarkets. Others took to money lending and in due course dabbled in real estate. Several members of second and third generation are becoming professionals and entrepreneurs.