The Divided Island
The two Caribbean nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island but not much else. Both have endured political unrest, civil conflict, and even brutal colonization. However, there is surprisingly little commiseration between the two. With their differing national identities, a sharp cultural divide remains to this day.
Many Haitians report experiencing racist treatment from the Dominican Republic. Some consider it a part of daily life on the island, and it’s so prevalent the term antihaitianismo has even been coined. The Dominican Republic has also continued to implement discriminatory immigration and citizenship policies against Haitians. In fact, the United States’ Overseas Security Advisory Council warns that the border areas between the countries, “are often regions where nationalistic tensions can result in violence.”
Conflicts on the island of Hispaniola have always existed, and the history between the two nations is complicated. Haiti’s past specifically has been especially tumultuous. It has endured natural disasters, countless regime changes, and even a successful slave-led revolt against its French colonizers in 1791. Despite both nations overcoming their European overseers, the effects of colonization persist. Once divided, the two nations never came back together in any meaningful way.
Why exactly these neighbors cannot cohabitate well is nuanced and cannot be attributed to just one historical event or another. Herold Dasque is the director of community relations for Haitian Americans United for Progress, a non-profit community resource center spanning multiple boroughs in New York City. Mr. Dasque immigrated from Haiti in 1984 and points to historical resentments as the reason, saying “there was a time when Haiti was more politically dominant.”
The two nations were briefly unified after Haiti won its independence in 1791, but the Dominican Republic then fought for their own freedom against Haiti in 1844. Now, the Dominican Republic is doing better with a richer economy, whereas Haitians are poorer and, as Dasque puts it, “are more favored by the big powers that give them more money,” which adds another layer of resentment.
Some Haitians would also blame the prevalence of colorism, a facet of racism. Vernette Garçon, a Brooklyn-based baker and Haitian immigrant, maintains that it is a problem, both across the island and within the Haitian community. “You have people who are light-skinned thinking they are better,” she says. The more prevalent this attitude is, the more likely people from either side of the island are to accept racism.
Despite hostility, a lot of Haitians still seek out the perks of their neighbor. The Dominican Republic has long sought out foreign laborers to work for sub-minimum wages, especially in the agricultural sector. However, the two nations’ ethnic identities are slowly bleeding into one another.
According to a 2017 national survey conducted by La Oficina Nacional de Estadística, the Dominican Republic’s official statistics office, there are upwards of 750,000 Haitian immigrants living there. This only amounts to approximately 7.5% of the population. However, in 2019, the country’s minister of Public Health, Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas, reported that 24% of newborns in the Dominican Republic were birthed by Haitian mothers. This suggests that the positive ties between the nations cannot be fully gleaned from workforce statistics. “I’m sure a lot of people in the Dominican Republic have Haitian ancestry,” says Ms. Garçon. She finds a lot of the prejudice unfounded, stating, “I know for a fact there is a lot of Haitian influence on the Dominican Republic.”
The relationship between immigrants from these nations is much less divided. Martine Paulynice, a 35-year-old science teacher in the Bronx, immigrated from Haiti with her mother 18 years ago and believes interactions between Haitians and Dominicans are drastically different in New York versus in their home countries. “I still harbor the same feelings that I do not like the people that are there (in the Dominican Republic),” she maintains, “however, if we are here in America, the Dominicans that I know here, I have no problems with.”
Ms. Paulynice claims to know many Dominicans but could only think of one person in her 18 years in New York who had said anything derogatory to her. In reference to attitudes of Dominican immigrants, she says, “I feel like they don’t support what the Dominicans on the island are doing to the Haitians so that makes it easy to interact with them.”
The improving relationship between these groups can be partly attributed to their shared experience as immigrants, but there may be a generational element as well. With second-generation immigrants and even younger Haitians and Dominicans on the mainland becoming more educated and graduating college more frequently, these past grudges are slowly dissolving. Mr. Dasque agrees that tensions between the ethnic groups don’t usually persist in America and suggests that the communities are on the right path. When asked about the larger issue of social justice movements in America, he praised his son’s generation for breaking down these types of barriers. Mr. Dasque says he sees them fighting for, “dignity, and more humanity, and more respect.”