Background and Purpose

The island of Hispaniola is shared by the Dominican Republic, the most developed economy in the Caribbean, and Haiti the poorest country in the western Hemisphere. Although the two countries have not been in battle since the mid-1800’s when the Dominican Republic gained independence from Haiti, the tumultuous history still resonates deeply in both cultures, governments, and societies. Despite racism, denial of citizenship, and the lack of rights, Haitians have migrated to the Dominican Republic for both economic and political reasons. Currently there are no accurate figures on the Haitian population in the Dominican Republic due to a lack of documentation and circular migration, however it is estimated that 500,000 – 1,000,000 Haitians live and work in the Dominican Republic in the urban centers like the capital city of Santo Domingo in the informal sector and in the rural high and low lands working as day laborers in the agriculture. The purpose of my trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti this summer had three objectives, the first was to work with a Dominican non-governmental organization (NGO) based out of Santo Domingo, El Movimiento Socio-cultural de los Trabajadores Haitiano (The Socio-cultural Movement of Haitian Workers, MOSCTHA), second was to conduct research on the situation of Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian decent in the Dominican Republic specifically in respect to economic and social rights, the third objective overlaps with the second objective in laying the foundation for my future dissertation research in the Dominican Republic and Haiti by making contacts, networking, and becoming familiar with the what type of work is currently being done in the country concerning Haitian immigrants and refugees.

The research and work accomplished in the Dominican Republic and Haiti can be divided in to 5 different sections: 1) I conducted interviews with all executive directors of the major NGO’s working with Haitian immigrants and refugees; 2) I attended a conference organized by Peace Corps Dominican Republic, Peace Corps Haiti, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) discussing development opportunities and obstacles on the border; 3) I visited over 20 sugar cane communities where I interviewed community leaders and conducted a more in depth interviews in three sugar cane communities; 4) I conducted interviews with recent Haitian immigrants in Santo Domingo who were working in the informal sector; 5) I conducted interviews in Haiti with men who have immigrated to the Dominican Republic at one point in their lives and are currently residing in Haiti.

Batey Guasumita- Woman and her children standing in front of their home built by the government to house sugar cane cutters.

Outcomes

Haitian immigration was initiated by a bilateral agreement between both governments to meet the labor demands of the fast growing sugar in the Dominican Republic, this creates unique historical situation from the beginning where work was racialized and to this day over 90 percent of the sugar cane cutters are Haitian or of Haitian decent. Currently, the new immigrants from Haiti come to the urban centers to work in construction and very few aspire to work in sugar. There is a sharp distinction from Haitians who live and work in the sugar communities and the Haitians who are living in urban centers. The sugar communities called bateys were formed by the sugar mill owners, most which were owned by the state, built barracks for the workers and through time these barracks have evolved into communities varying in size from 50-2000 permanent residents. There are over 400 bateys in the Dominican Republic. Haitians or Dominicans of Haitian decent who live in the bateys have been living in the Dominican Republic for many years ranging from 10-50 years and many of the younger population were born in the Dominican Republic. Most of the people in the bateys are not legal residents or citizens of the Dominican Republic. Although more than half the population was born in the Dominican Republic, and the Dominican Constitution states that anyone born on Dominican soil is a citizen of the Dominican Republic, most children who’s parents are Haitian or of Haitian decent are not given birth certificates. The denial of citizenship and difficulty I obtaining residency has impacted the Haitian population living in the bateys in a number of ways: it restricts movement west of Santo Domingo due to military check points of all vehicles heading towards the capital; children are not allowed to go to school after the fourth grade if they do not have birth certificates; they can not work in the formal sector, meaning earning a paycheck; they can not buy property, open up a bank account, and they constantly live in fear of deportation.

Batey Belmejo- Laila and son standing in their door way of another government constructed barracks for sugar cane workers.

 

Haitians living in the urban centers by in large are new immigrants to the Dominican Republic, most of them have been living in the Dominican Republic for 10 years or less and still have strong ties to Haiti. Everyone I interviewed who lives in Santo Domingo go back to Haiti at least once a year and send remittances back on a regular basis to their families with friends. All of the new immigrants works or worked in the informal sector, primarily in construction and selling food stuffs on the street and at stop lights. The current administration and the immigration police and the military have given particular attention to repatriating Haitians in urban areas. In the past three years the deportation process has been systematized. Prior to this administration repatriation efforts were done sporadically resulting in thousands of Haitians being deported in a short period of time and then nothing for months or even years, but now the repatriation efforts are done daily in many of the neighborhoods with a large Haitian population and on the street where many Haitians sell various products. The repatriation process in the Dominican Republic is stopping a Haitian or a person of Haitian decent often times with documentation and putting them in jail without any notice to family or friends, or the opportunity to gather ones belongings, and when there is enough people to fill a bus driving them to the border and dropping them off. A many of the people who I interviewed in Haiti, who lived in the Dominican Republic were deported and a number of people I interviewed in Santo Domingo had also been deported and returned to the Dominican Republic soon after. Deportation concerns are more eminent in the urban centers than the rural bateys.

San Luis- In the foreground there is sugar that has been out of production for about 6 years, the community in the middle of the picture who used to depend on the sugar harvest and the background is the sugar processing plant. The government sugar estate Ozama is located approximately 45 km east of the Capital city of Santo Domingo.

The state owned sugar mills were privatized in 1999; and as a result disruptions and large changes occurred in many bateys. Problems in production, falling sugar prices, and the lack of technology in the sugar mills led to nearly all of the sugar mills shutting down leaving the communities which depended on the sugar mill as their source of income in an economically and socially desperate situation. All of the land surrounding the communities is now leased by private investors who have left the land out of production without giving the people an option to buy or produce on the land, in addition, prior to privatization the state provided some social services such as health care to the communities which now are gone. The general downturn of the Dominican economy, inflation, and the recent embezzlement from the central bank has exacerbated the deplorable situation in the bateys. The resonating complaints by the people living in the bateys was “no hay nada aqui, ni para comer” – there is nothing here, not even to eat- while there was significant international attention and criticism by various organizations on the mistreatment of Haitian sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic, the dilemma now is what do the people do when they don’t even access to what the international community called “slave labor?” Almost everyone I interviewed in the bateys stated that things were better when there was sugar, although they conceded to the fact that wages were low, the hours were too long, and they were cheated on a regular basis, it was better than their current situation.

Market in Ouanaminthe- a local market in the Haitian city of Ouanaminthe. Most of the products sold at the market are imported from Dajabon, on the Dominican side of the border which is located approximately 5 Km away from this site.

Like most borders, the area in between the Dominican Republic and Haiti is a unique place. The border is one of the most impoverished areas in both countries. I spent five days in the northwest border town of Dajabon at a conference with NGO’s, international institutions, and Peace Corps volunteers in a dialogue focused on the problems and opportunities around the border area. On the border both of the economies and the people are heavily tied. There are large markets twice a week in Dajabon on the Dominican side of the border, more than 20 million pesos are exchanged every Friday and Monday, this figure does not include the market in the Haitian city of Ouanaminthe, and 25 millions pesos earned monthly just from Dominican customs. While there is very little cooperation and sharing of resources on both sides of the border, recently the Dominican government has agreed to lend a flat bed truck once a week to the city of Ouanaminthe to dump garbage. The primary problems and opportunities identified during the conference were although there are many development opportunities which can and need to be done on both sides such as watershed restoration, public health and reforestation initiatives, there is a lack of financial support from the governments and international institutions, as well as a lack of political will on both sides of the border. This was the cry that I heard not only on the border but from the institutions based out of Santo Domingo as well. Because there are few efforts to change the current immigrant law as well as the lack if implementation of the already existing laws, it is difficult to change the Haitian situation in the Dominican Republic on the border, in urban centers, and the bateys. All of the NGO executive directors, most of whom have been working for the Haitian cause for more than 10 years stated that year after year it is getting more and more difficult due to the lack of funding and political will. In a interview with Inoelia Remy, the executive director of the Association for development of women and the environment, stated candidly that the same people who make and implement the laws are the ones who benefit from low wage labor that Haitians provide, they are the ones who are constructing homes, they are the ones who have yards to be maintained, they are the ones who need maids to cook and clean, and why would they ever choose to place at risk the benefits they receive by keeping Haitians illegal and thereby complacent and give Haitians rights in a country where the economy has been built from the blood and sweat of the very people who they deny. The Dominican Republic the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean whose independence was attained not from a colonial power rather from neighbor, to this day cultural fears provoked by what the Dominicans call “the silent invasion” by Haitians remains today governing the policies and civil society.

Cristo Rey- a neighborhood (barrio) on the northern edge of the National District where I was based out of. On the fringe of the neighborhood there is a large produce market where many migrants from the rural areas and Haitians work selling agricultural products.