According to research from Aurora Herrera, the omission diminishes the contributions of Indo-Caribbean migrants to British society
Date: 22 June 2026
Windrush Day on June 22 is a national day of commemoration to pay tribute to the Windrush generation and their descendants.
It celebrates the contributions made to post-war British society by those who emigrated to the UK between 1948, when the first arrivals came aboard the HMT Empire Windrush, and 1973.
Research reveals damaging impacts of the media narrative
The occasion has been celebrated annually in the media since 2018 but rarely does it capture the full diversity of Caribbean migration to Britain, according to Aurora Herrera, a lecturer in TV journalism at London Metropolitan University and an editorial member of the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network.
Interviews conducted in the data-gathering process for her upcoming research paper “Investigating the lack of Indo-Caribbean representation in the Windrush media narrative” reveal that this invisibility is felt deeply by people from Indo-Caribbean backgrounds.
One of the interviewees, the daughter of an Indo-Caribbean Windrush migrant from Guyana, warned of the “damaging” impact that the lack of media representation and knowledge about the diversity of Caribbean people has caused.
She said: "Nobody would ever look at me and imagine that I'm a daughter of the Windrush generation."
Part of the problem is that there has never been an explicit Indo-Caribbean category in official records, including in the modern UK census. As a result, another interviewee said that media narratives “don’t really focus on us”.
Wider issues at play
Aurora said the issue extends beyond Windrush into broader representations of Caribbean identity in Britain – with one interviewee concerned that "the word Caribbean has come to mean one thing" in the UK.
Aurora added: “Indo-Caribbean individuals may feel excluded from the communities and histories to which they belong. Such reduction of Caribbean identity has significant consequences; repeated omission from public narratives leads to gradual erasure from public consciousness.
“The omission of Indo-Caribbean voices from Windrush narratives is also connected to a wider historical erasure of indentureship. Following the abolition of slavery, over half a million Indians were transported to the Caribbean under systems of indentured labour. Yet this history remains poorly understood in Britain.
“The current challenge for the media is not to substitute one narrative for another, but rather to expand the perspective through which Windrush is interpreted. Such an approach would facilitate a more comprehensive and historically accurate account of Caribbean experiences in Britain, incorporating Indo-Caribbean, Chinese-Caribbean, and other communities whose histories have frequently been marginalised.
“An inclusive media narrative would not diminish the significance of the Windrush story; instead, it would enhance it by acknowledging the diverse experiences that have contributed to the development of modern Britain.”
Dr Aurora Herrera
Aurora is a lecturer in the journalism department of London Metropolitan University with a career in print and television spanning more than a decade.
Aurora is from Trinidad and Tobago and her core area of research pertains to journalism culture, media freedom, media law, censorship and safety of journalists within the Caribbean region. She is currently an editorial member of the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network.