In the United States, the politics of identity and immigration is filled with a complex narrative. But head south, and you'll find identity politics are much more complicated in the Caribbean.

Now a tourist destination, many view the Caribbean as a respite from the cold—a paradise of islands in an ocean well suited for a holiday escape.

But for centuries, the thousands of islands that are now defined broadly as the Caribbean have existed in the crosshairs of world powers along trade routes and patterns of migration. 

Carrie Gibson is a historian and the author of "Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day." She says that colonial history has changed the very notion of freedom in these tiny nations.