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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