Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: The Society and Its Environment
Estatal del Azucar—CEA) plantations. In response, the Dominican
army rounded up Haitians in the country and forcibly
took them to the CEA estates. The exploitation of the Haitian
cane cutters included their being forced to live in filthy hovels,
called bateyes. In 1983 the International Labour Organisation
issued a critical report about the situation, which was followed
by similar reports by human rights groups in 1989 and 1990.
Balaguer's response after his 1990 reelection was the deportation
of 50,000 Haitian illegals. Shortly before the May 1996
election, Balaguer ordered another roundup and deportation
of Haitians, this time to play the racial and nationalist card
against "black" Francisco Peha Gomez, the candidate of the
Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario
Dominicano—PRD) (see Political Parties, ch. 4).
There is debate about the number of Haitians present in the
Dominican Republic as well as the number who have entered
legally or illegally because the estimates are often subject to
political considerations. For example, at times the Balaguer
government has claimed that as many as 75,000 to 100,000 Haitians
have entered illegally. The 1960 census enumerated
slightly under 30,000 Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.
According to an unofficial Dominican census of 1991, the
number of Haitian immigrants increased from around 97,000
in 1970 to 245,000 in 1991, with the majority still living in
bateyes. Two well-known United States analysts have estimated
that the number of Dominico-Haitians, or Dominicans of Haitian
ancestry (they were not included in the 1991 figure of
245,000), increased by 100,000 between 1970 and 1991. The
analysts also estimated that 500,000 Haitians and Dominico-
Haitians were living in the Dominican Republic in 1995.
During the 1970s and 1980s, some Haitians rose to high
positions in sugar production and in other areas of the economy.
Although Haitians continue to account for the vast majority
of cane cutters, roughly half of all labor recruiters and field
inspectors also are Haitians. Haitians also work harvesting coffee,
rice, and cocoa and in construction in Santo Domingo. By
1980 nearly 30 percent of the paid laborers in the coffee harvest
were Haitian; in the border region, the proportion rose to
80 percent. A reasonably skilled coffee picker can nearly double
the earnings of the average cane cutter. Overall, however,
Haitians' earnings still lag; their wages average less than 60 percent
of those of Dominicans.
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