The Diversity of St Maarten Society in a Nutshell

Without using computer or internet, anyone in St Maarten can easily mingle with individuals from almost every country in earth. It is estimated that only 20% of the total population of St Maarten was born on the island. The rest have come from all over the world. With a population of St. Maarten was born on the island. The rest have come from all over the world. With population of just 100,000 people, St Maarten is inhibited by almost 90 different nationalities!

Some come for economic opportunity and others come to get away from larger economies! Whatever the reason, the diversity if that call St Maarten home has helped to create one of the most multicultural destinations anywhere in the world

My story

In the early 1970s, my parent came here from India on their honeymoon… and never left! A few years later my older brother and I became a first generation from our family to be born in the western hemisphere.

Growing up on St Maarten I have had the opportunity to build relationships with people from so many different countries. In addition to those who moved to the island over the years, I have also develop great friendships with several families that vacation here on a regular basis. Many of these friends have treated me like family whenever I vacation I their hometown.

“Building Global Team on 37 square miles”

In the summer of 2009, I took a leap of faith and opened my own real estate company, Island Real Estate Team. I didn’t use any from of advertising to recruit people, rather, just through word of mouth; I let it be known that I was looking to build a team. Within a few months, our team had grown to over ten agents. At time, I didn’t pay any attention where these people where were originally from. I think was just so excited to have these individuals around me. I knew most of them from being business. They lived on Island full time, so basically I considered the to be locals.

It only came to my attention how diverse our new company had become, when one day a client of ours commented, “Wait a minute, you guys are like United Nations office!”

While thinking about this customer’s remark, It quickly dawned on me that the diversity of within our company is really just a reflection of the diversity easily found in this island! We currently have 15 people working under the Island Real Estate Team ,”umbrella. The birth places of these individuals range from USA, Canada, England, Holland, France, Romania, India, Curacao, Dominica, Suriname, and of course St Maarten!

There are many places in the world, where a little word of mouth is all it takes to assemble a team of individuals from 10 different countries. More amazing, is finding such a diverse group of individuals, who happen to live within a 37 square mile radius of each other…easily done in St Maarten. This, my friends is the diversity of St Maarten… in a nutshell!

-by Arun Jagtiani