Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: The Society and Its Environment
another. According to the 1993 census, in rural areas men outnumber
women until the twenty to twenty-four-year age-group,
when women become more numerous; in the forty-five to fiftyyear
age-group, men once again become and remain in the
majority. The figures reflect the fact that men in the twenty-five
to forty-four-year age-group leave for the cities or for the
United States. Many return two decades later. On the other
hand, in the urban areas from their teens on women outnumber
men.
In general, migrants earn more than non-migrants and suffer
lower rates of unemployment, although underemployment
is pervasive. Urban-rural migrants have the highest incomes.
This category, however, consists of a select group of educated
and skilled workers, mostly government officials, teachers, and
the like moving from a city to assume specific jobs in rural
areas. They receive higher wages as a recompense for the lack
of urban amenities in villages.
Migrants speak of the migration chain (
cadena) tying them
to other migrants and their home communities. Kin serve as
the links in the chain. They care for family, lands, and businesses
left behind, or, if they have migrated earlier, assist the
new arrivals with employment and housing. The actual degree
of support families can or are willing to give a migrant varies
widely, however.
The process of rural-urban migration typically involves a
series of steps. The migrant gradually abandons agriculture
and seeks more nonagricultural sources of income. Migrants
rarely arrive in the largest, fastest-growing cities "green" from
the countryside. They acquire training and experience in intermediate-sized
cities and temporary nonfarm jobs en route.
International migration plays a significant role in the livelihood
of many Dominicans. Anywhere from 10 to 12 percent of
the total population are residing abroad. Estimates of those living
and working in the United States in the 1990s range from
300,000 to as high as 800,000. Roughly 200,000 more are estimated
to be in San Juan, Puerto Rico, many of them presumably
waiting to get to the United States mainland. One
Dominican official reported the estimated number in the late
1990s to be 700,000, which includes 75,000 illegals. In the mid-
1980s, the United States admitted from 23,000 to 26,000
Dominicans annually; by 1990 the number had increased to
42,195 and by 1993 to almost 46,000. (The United States census
of 1990 reported that there were 511,297 Dominicans living
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