Editors

This chapter examines how national contexts influence migrant political organi-zation dynamics. Its focus is on Caribbeans in Britain and France, who have sim-ilar migration histories as well as similar social and economic integration out-comes, but different patterns of national-level political organization. In many ways, some difference in political organization is to be expected, because there are many political, economic, and cultoral differences between Britain and France likely to shape migrant organizational dynamics in the two countries. The different patterns of national-level political organization among Caribbeans in Britain and France pose an interesting puzzle, however, because they are the. opposite of what one would expect. Because British public policies are often cited as exaggerating racial and ethnic divisions, one might expect Caribbean national-level political organi-zations in Britain to focus on ethnic-specific and race-specific constitoencies. Instead, they tend to be broadly defined and seek to represent all migrant groups. In comparison, French public policies are often cited as extremel