Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

—
Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic are subject to abusive
working conditions and forced labor practices.
Out-migration tends to moderate Haiti's population growth.
Internal rural-urban migration, for example, softens the
impact of the high fertility rate in rural areas but also imposes
acute stress on Haiti's urban communities and public services.
An estimated 70 percent of Haiti's internal migrants are
between ten and twenty-nine years of age. Migration is clearly
an escape valve and has an overall moderating effect on Haitian
poverty. At the same time, emigration causes heavy loss of
professional and skilled personnel from both urban and rural
areas. Remittances from abroad, however, do support thousands
of poor families and inject a massive infusion of capital
into the Haitian economy. Overseas remittances are estimated
to be between US$350 million and US$500 million annually
some 12 to 15 percent of Haiti's GNR Urban households are
more likely to benefit from overseas remittances than rural
households. Migration studies suggest that women are more
likely to migrate to cities and men to go abroad.
The large number of Haitians living abroad is playing a
growing role in domestic cultural, social, and political trends.
Emigration creates greater latitude for upward social mobility.
Hence emigration has an impact on social relations within
Haiti, a society traditionally marked by rigid social distinctions.
The use of English as a second language has also expanded
considerably because of the preponderance of United States
influence and its role as the primary destination for emigrants.
Emigration also tends to increase the number of femaleheaded
households in Haiti. In the 1990s, the Haitian diaspora
has been a notable factor in domestic Haitian politics. As early
as 1990, presidential candidate Jean-Bertrand Aristide referred
to the Haitian diaspora as Haiti's "Tenth Department." After
the return of constitutional government in late 1994, the Aristide
government created a new ministry devoted to the Haitian
diaspora.
Social Structure
The indigenous population of Haiti first came into contact
with Europeans when Christopher Columbus landed in the
country in 1492. The encounters with Europeans, first the
Spanish and then the French, proved disastrous for the inhabitants;
by the first decade of the seventeenth century, the Amerindian
population was extinct (see Spanish Discovery and
328