As a result, Trinidadians do not equate their nationality with race and ethnicity, but with citizenship, identification with the islands as whole, or either Trinidad or Tobago specifically.

They are primarily descendants from indentured workers from South Asia and India, brought to replace freed African slaves who refused to continue working on the sugar plantations from other Islands.

[12] However, a good percentage of the Black population are descendants of people enslaved on other islands of the Caribbean, and later migrated to Trinidad and Tobago for various reasons, especially Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Vincent and Grenada.

Other Afro-Trinidadians trace their ancestry to American slaves recruited to fight for the British in the War of 1812 or from indentured labourers from West Africa.

[citation needed] Chinese, Amerindians, Europeans, Arabs, Hispanic/Latinos, Douglas (mixed Indian and African), multiracial people, and Jews, reside in Trinidad and Tobago.