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Immigration
Immigration
The Haitian occupation government (1822-1844) invited free blacks and fugitives from the United States to settle on the island.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s large groups immigrated to the country from Venezuela and Puerto Rico, so much so that two of the country's former presidents and life long political rivals, Juan Bosch and Joaquín Balaguer, had Puerto Rican parents.
During the first decades of the 20th century, many Chinese, Arabs (primarily from Lebanon and Syria), Japanese and to a lesser degree Koreans settled in the country, working as agricultural laborers and merchants.
Waves of Chinese immigrants, the latter ones fleeing the Chinese communist People's Liberation Army (PLA), arrived and worked in mines and building railroads.
The current Chinese Dominican population totals 15,000.
The Arab community is also rising at an increasing rate.
Estimates are at 3,400.[citation needed] Japanese immigrants, who mostly work in the business districts and markets, are at an estimate of 1,900 living in the country.[citation needed] The Korean presence is minor but evident at a population of 500.[citation needed] .
In addition, there are descendants of immigrants who came from other Caribbean islands, including St.
Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua, St.
Vincent, Montserrat, Tortola, St.
Croix, St.
Thomas, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
They worked on sugarcane plantations and docks and settled in the cities of San Pedro de Macoris and Puerto Plata.
They are believed to number 28,000.
Immigration from Europe and the United States is at an all time high, according to the Joshua Project and BBC: 1,400 Britons reside on the island, in addition to 800 Germans, 4,000 Italians (unofficially, the number is estimated to be as high as 40,000), 1,900 French, 88,000 Spaniards and (in 1999) 82,000 Americans.
The town of Sosúa has many Jews who immigrated before or during World War II.
The country is now home to 100 Jews.
With recent decades of unrest and poverty in Haiti, immigration from Haiti has increased once again.
Some Haitian immigrants arrive in the Dominican Republic illegally and work at low-paying, unskilled labor jobs, including construction work, household cleaning, and in sugar plantations.
Current estimates put the Haitian–born population in the Dominican Republic as high as 1 million.
Working conditions on these sugar plantations have caused controversy, including allegations that they border on slavery.
Moreover, the children of illegal Haitian immigrants are denied citizenship and basic health care, and there are frequent physical attacks on, and roundups of adult immigrants.
Some Dominican and Haitian officials deny such accusations of slavery, with the Haitian ambassador Fritz Cineas stating, "I still have not received any complaint of violation of human rights against the Haitian immigrants in the country." However, the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, stated publicly during a seminar on immigration policy in 2005 that collective expulsions of Haitians were carried out "in an abusive and inhuman way." Selective enforcement of deportation rules is much criticized in Haiti.
Some critics say that "the Dominicans could help heal many of Haiti's open political wounds by extraditing back to Haiti many of the criminals of the 1991 coup d'état and the Duvalier dictatorship who enjoy de facto political asylum in the Dominican Republic." When asked for a response to the current situation, Fernandez stated, "There must exist an extradition treaty between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but there isn't one between our two countries." .
.
Illegal Haitian Immigration
Haiti, with more people but half the land area, is much poorer than the Dominican Republic.
Dictatorships failed to provide for education and training, political unrest kept the country in turmoil, and population pressure through subsistence farming has stripped the landscape.
In 2002 less than half of the Haitian population had formal jobs; in 2003 60% of the Haitian population was illiterate, and 80% of all Haitians were poor.
Facing stark prospects for survival, many Haitians cross the border to Dominican soil without authorization in search of better living conditions.
But, as is usual for illegal immigrants in nearly all nations, they are relegated to working class status, largely in farming, often sugar cane plantations, and house construction, with poor housing and poor schools for their children.
Any person born on Dominican soil is a Dominican citizen if one of his or her parents is a legal resident of the country, per the Dominican constitution, unless the parents constitutions states otherwise (ius sanguinis) and any legally residing person in the Dominican Republic can theoretically become a citizen.
Many children of Haitian ancestors are stateless, as their parents are denied Dominican citizenship because they are deemed to be transient, or illegal or undocumented residents, or are unable to obtain Haitian citizenship for lack of proper documents or witnesses: note that Haiti's Constitution states in Title II, Article 11 that "Any person born of a Haitian father or Haitian mother who are themselves native-born Haitians and have never renounced their nationality possesses Haitian nationality at the time of birth." .
A large number of Haitian women, often arriving with several health problems, cross the border to Dominican soil during their last weeks of pregnancy to obtain much-needed medical attention for childbirth, since Dominican public hospitals do not refuse medical services based on nationality or legal status.
Statistics from a hospital in Santo Domingo report that over 22% of childbirths are by Haitian mothers( a very underestimated number.) nu.
Unofficially there are 800,000 illegal Haitians living in the Dominican Republic, which accounts for about 10% of the national population.
Other estimates give a figure of more than a million.
After a UN delegation issued a preliminary report stating that it found a profound problem of racism and discrimination against people of Haitian origins, Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso issued a formal statement denouncing it and asserting that "Our border with Haiti has its problems, this is our reality and it must be understood.
It is important not to confuse national sovereignty with indifference, and not to confuse security with xenophobia..." .
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Emigration
The Dominican Republic has experienced three distinct waves of emigration in the second half of the twentieth century.
The first period began in 1961, when a coalition of high-ranking Dominicans, with assistance from the CIA, assassinated General Rafael Trujillo, the nation's military dictator.
In the wake of his death, fear of retaliation by Trujillo's allies, and political uncertainty in general, spurred migration from the island.
In 1965, the United States began a military occupation of the Dominican Republic and eased travel restrictions, making it easier for Dominicans to obtain American visas.
From 1966 to 1978, the exodus continued, fueled by high unemployment and political repression.
Communities established by the first wave of immigrants to the U.S.
created a network that assisted subsequent arrivals.
In the early 1980s, underemployment, inflation, and the rise in value of the dollar all contributed to a third wave of migration from the island nation.
Today, emigration from the Dominican Republic remains high, facilitated by the social networks of now-established Dominican communities in the United States.
Crime
The Dominican Republic has served as a transportation hub for Colombian drug cartels.
In 2004 it was estimated that 8% of all cocaine smuggled into the United States has come through the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic responded with increased efforts to seize drug shipments, arrest and extradite those involved, and combat money-laundering.
A 1995 report stated that social pressures and increasing poverty — which was then increasing — have led to a rise in prostitution within the Dominican Republic.
Though prostitution is legal within the country and the age of consent is 18, child prostitution is a growing phenomenon in impoverished areas.
In an environment where young girls are often denied employment opportunities offered to boys, prostitution frequently becomes a source of supplementary income.[citation needed] UNICEF estimated in 1994 that at least 25,000 children were involved in the Dominican sex trade, 63% of that figure being girls.
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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