Displaced Haitians Living An Uncertain Future

1265 Words3 Pages

Haitians and Dominican born Haitians living in Dominican Republic have been subjects to discrimination and social injustice brought on by years of tension between both countries. The Dominican Republic and Haiti have had on and off hostility and disagreements throughout their history. Although there has been no fighting between them in recent years, the discrimination that Haitians face makes their lives harder.

This research paper will touch on topics that may provide an understanding to the reasoning to why there has been such a divide between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. This First, the history of Haiti’s turmoil and brief rule over the Dominican Republic will be discussed. Secondly, Dominican’s feeling of superiority, has given them the idea that Haitians are inferior to them. The horrific conditions that migrant Haitians living in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic is an outcome of the history and the discrimination they have faced for years. Third, the human rights of Haitians have been violated by the refusal to have their children’s birth certificates filed. This human rights violation has led to the deportation of Haitians by Dominican police. Lastly, the recent law that took away the citizenship of Dominican born Haitians, sums up the social inequality that has been brought to a head.

Haiti has had an unfortunate history that has brought it to its current state. Today everyone knows it as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. This was not always the case as Professor Diamond discussed in an interview, “Haiti was the richest colony in the world. It’s incredible that it accounted for about half of France’s foreign exchange because of its sugar plantations, up to independence in 1804” (Roberts 2). As...

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