Select Committee on International Development Uncorrected Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by The Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR)

  1.  The Catholic Institute for International Relations, (CIIR) an international charity has been active in advocacy on development issues since it was founded in 1950. Through its technical assistance programmes, known as International Cooperation for Development, CIIR works with partner organisations in 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, South-East Asia and Africa and the Middle East.

  CIIR wishes to draw to the attention of the International Development Committee lessons emerging from its work on migration with communities of Haitian Dominicans in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. This memorandum is based on a forthcoming CIIR report written by Bridget Wooding and Richard Moseley Williams[29]entitled Needed but Unwanted: Haitian Immigrants and Their Descendants in the Dominican Republic. Other information is taken from CIIR's own research in relation to its advocacy work on Haiti on the anniversary of 200 years of Haitian independence in January 2004.

  2.  This memorandum covers the following issues of relevance to the International Development Committee's inquiry into migration and Development:

    1.  Development, poverty reduction and migration.

    2.  Migrants as a development resource.

    3.  Brain Drain versus brain gain.

    4.  South-South migration.

    5.  Gender issues and migration.

1.  DEVELOPMENT, POVERTY REDUCTION AND MIGRATION:

  In the case of migration from Haiti to the Dominican Republic the flow of people looking for work has clearly acted as some kind of pressure valve for a country that is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, where an estimated 80% of the population lack full-time paid employment. Recently the British government has been concerned about the numbers of Haitians migrating to the British protectorate of the Turks and Caicos. Effective British government and European Union aid programmes for Haiti could be targeted to such areas as infrastructural improvement to enable peasant producers to market their produce, thus reducing poverty which is a major push factor influencing rural Haitians to migrate.

2.  MIGRANTS AS A DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE:

  Although there is no substantial study of the economic and social impact of Haitians migrants to the DR, one might believe that the movement of labour from Haiti (a poor country) to the Dominican Republic (a middle income country), and of Dominican workers to the US (a rich country), would be beneficial. The US needs labour as its population grows older, the Dominican Republic requires workers for jobs Dominicans do not want to fill, and Haiti needs to reduce unemployment. The arrangement creates wealth in the former two countries, and reduces poverty in the latter. Meanwhile there is a built-in distribution mechanism through remittances from the migrant wage earners to their families back home, which alleviates poverty in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

  The World Bank takes a different and contentious view in its 2002 report on poverty in the Dominican Republic.[30] The report argues that Haitian labourers create wealth, but for the rich, not for the poor. They force low wages down, increasing poverty, and inhibit the mechanisation and modernisation of enterprises. The document concludes that the immigrants may de-rail the government's poverty reduction plans.

  This premise rests on some basic miscalculations of the existing situation: firstly the report accepts the figure of 500,000 "Haitians" which is erroneous. The World Bank then takes for granted that all 500,000 people are labourers in low paid jobs and that they are illegal (or what the report calls "in a legal situation defined as precarious"). In fact, Haitian-Dominicans, probably half the 500,000 total, are in all sorts of jobs throughout most of the economy. Where the low paid labourers are concerned, they mostly compete for jobs with other Haitian manual workers, not with Dominicans who do not want to work at these levels. Wages for labourers are forced down, but they are still much higher than in Haiti. It is true that Haitian manual workers create wealth for the rich and not for the poor, but so do millions of Dominicans.

  In theory an abundant supply of manual labour reduces the pressure for businesses to mechanise and modernise to save labour costs and increase efficiency. In practice, as we know from experience in countries like the Dominican Republic, mechanisation means job losses at most levels, and not only among manual workers. In periods of adjustment, which may last several years, unemployment and poverty may increase in the short term unless there are compensating factors.

  Finally the report had nothing to say in areas where in other countries, immigrants contribute to their new countries. Evidence from elsewhere is that migrants, when they have acquired the language, are more productive. This seems to be the case with the Haitians. Migrants often find niches that create jobs, as they have in the Dominican Republic, for example in selling Haitian art and handicrafts.

  Are the immigrants a significant extra burden on the state, and particularly on the national education and health systems? Here one must remember that recently arrived migrants are mostly young adults whose health and education costs incurred in childhood and adolescence were borne in Haiti. Clearly the established population of Haitian immigrants will increasingly use state services where they can access them, putting more pressure on over-stretched and poorly funded state schools and hospitals. This appears to be a significant problem in the poorest areas of the country in the south-west and the border provinces. On the other hand, low income immigrants contribute to taxation revenue in the same way as do poorer Dominicans, who are outside the income tax bracket but pay indirect taxes, particularly the value added tax on the goods and services. No study exists to show whether Haitian immigrants are a net burden on, or net contributors to the state.

  Behind the fear of a silent invasion by Haitian migrants are two unstated concerns. One is that the country will become more "black". The other is that the political balance will be changed, which has its origins in the conviction of the upper class that naturalised Haitians would support the left of centre PRD party. There are both race and class aspects to this fear. The PRD has strong support among the poor and working class. Many believe that Haitian immigration could add to this support and create an unpredictable threat to the established order. More research and better dissemination of research carried out is needed to counteract the ignorance about Haitian immigrants and their descendants.

3.  BRAIN DRAIN VERSUS BRAIN GAIN:

  The CIIR Report on the situation in the DR found a changing pattern of migration and profile of the migrant from Haiti to the Dominican Republic. No longer is it primarily the unskilled uneducated agricultural labourer bused over on collective work contracts to cut cane in the sugar plantations. Migrants are increasingly better educated, come over with friends or contacts and rapidly learn how to negotiate the Dominican labour market. Many go backwards and forwards between the two countries, working for set periods of time only in the DR before returning home. However the report also found evidence that it is difficult for migrants to acquire skills in the DR due to prejudice from employers and works foremen who gave the better jobs to Dominicans, reserving the unskilled and less well paid jobs for the Haitian migrants.

4.  SOUTH-SOUTH MIGRATION:

  Protection of migrants' rights: The role of civil society organisations, migrants' rights organisations and government is critical in this. National governments, recipients of migrants and donor governments must ensure that new legislation and policy reforms are consistent with anti-poverty strategies. In the DR two major reforms: the national society security system and the education plan both fail to take account of how the poorest and undocumented, including immigrants are to be incorporated. For example children of Haitians living in the DR are often denied places in primary schools for the ostensible reason that they lack a birth certificate (their legal right if they are born in the DR, but in practice often denied them). Although the government attempted to address this it lacked the political will to do so and has left the issue to the discretion of local school to admit them or not.

  There are an estimated 2 million people in the Dominican Republic without birth certificates. Most of these are Dominicans, although a sizeable number are of Haitian descent. Without birth certificates poor people face discrimination in education, housing, schooling and employment as they cannot then easily obtain an identity card.

  There are periodic mass deportations of Haitians from the Dominican Republic. Although international law prohibits mass deportations there were over 30,000 expulsions in both 2000 and 2001. Amnesty International reported in 2002 that "the authorities often fail to give people the opportunity to demonstrate their status and as a result a number of Dominican nationals of Haitian origin were expelled from their own country. Those returned may have included people at risk of human rights violations in Haiti. There were also reports of police brutality during repatriations."

  There is an urgent need for the Dominican Congress to debate and approve a new migration law to replace the existing obsolete legislation of 1939. As a follow-up to such legislation, the Dominican Government could be encouraged to ratify the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their families that came in to force in July 2003.

5.  GENDER ISSUES AND MIGRATION

  Women make up a third of migrants in the Dominican Republic. A study commissioned by CIIR partner organisations MUDHA in the DR and GARR in Port au Prince in 2002-03 found some novel results:

    i.  The profile of the migrant is beginning to change,—small scale peasants and artisans are being replaced as the main group of migrants by young people from the urban slum areas who have a higher education.

    ii.  Women now have a higher profile and migrate not exclusively as partners of their men folk.

    iii.  Womens' main purpose of migration is to enter the workforce.

    iv.  Women's main motive for migration is economic.

    v.  Women mostly migrate illegally (ie without visa permission) except women traders.

    vi.  Women migrants are mainly found in agriculture, domestic service or in trading activities.

    vii.   Women earn less than going local rate for job but more than they would in Haiti.

    viii.  Women maintain contact with Haiti, but there is relatively little integration in local society.

    ix.   There is a relatively low level of organisation and women are often victims of abuse, especially during forced repatriations.

    x.   Women traders often suffer extortion at the border.

    xi.  Most women do not know their rights as migrants nor the gender specifics of these.

  Proposals to address these issues include:

    —  New migration laws in the Dominican Republic should take specific account of women migrants. Ngos, churches and others need to encourage government in this and lobby accordingly.

    —  Civil society organisations should reinforce their accompaniment of women migrants with a view to strengthening their organisation and encouraging a rights based stance on the part of their representatives.

December 2003




29   Bridget Wooding and Richard Moseley-Williams are British development consultants based in Santo Domingo, specialising in social development, migration and human rights. Back

30   World Bank, Informe sobre la pobreza en Republica Dominicana: La pobreza en una economia de alto crecimiento (Santo Domingo 2002). Back


 
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