HomeCurrent State of Haitian Migration

Current State of Haitian Migration

État des lieux des migrations haïtiennes

Panorama de la migración haitiana

Études caribéennes N° 61, 2025

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Published on Monday, January 20, 2025

Abstract

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In Haiti, the migration issue is a key structural factor in understanding the realities of this society. Since the country’s first occupation by the United States in 1915, national life has been punctuated by the massive displacement of Haitians, making it a country of emigration. From 1915 to the post-2010 years, marked by the January 12 earthquake, the country experienced at least six major waves of migration. Starting from these considerations as a powerful factor of expulsion, there is an invitation to take stock of a century and more of Haitian emigration.

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Argument

In Haiti, the migration issue is a key structural factor in understanding the realities of this society. Since the country’s first occupation by the United States in 1915, national life has been punctuated by the massive displacement of Haitians, making it a country of emigration (Paul, 2020). From 1915 to the post-2010 years, marked by the January 12 earthquake, the country experienced at least six major waves of migration.
The first wave, known as the ‘Green trade’, corresponded to the violent dispossession of a large section of the peasantry (Anglade, 2008). Between 1915 and 1929, over 200,000 Haitian nationals were driven to Cuba as migrant workers (Balch, 1927). Many more were sent to the Dominican Republic (Castor, 1988).
The second wave involved the mass departure of intellectuals and business people, known as the ‘Grey Trade’ (Anglade, 2008) in the face of the hardening Duvalier dictatorship between 1960 and 1970, mainly to the United States, Canada, France and French-speaking African countries then undergoing decolonization.
The economic liberalization of the 1980s and the end of the tourism era in Haiti heralded the third wave of migration, that of the working classes associated with the boat people movement to the United States. It was in the wake of these events that a large section of the working classes left the country even after the fall of the dictatorship in l986, although these flows were tempered by the image of the return of certain political exiles. But this was a brief five-year interlude. The political violence of the military coup of 1990–1994 and the economic embargo imposed in its wake brought a fourth wave.

The political turbulence of 2004–2006, linked to President Aristide’s second exile, can be considered a fifth wave. After these episodes, although the interlude may still seem insignificant, there was a rebound in migratory flows to the United States and Canada following the earthquake of January 12, 2010 (Carrera, 2014). At the same time, new migration flows were observed towards Latin American countries, including Brazil, Chile and Mexico. In addition, the political turmoil that plagued the 2010s and almost the first half of the 2020s and natural disasters are, among other things, two main factors of repulsion in Haiti. Indeed, the many problems facing Haitian society continually force Haitians to choose migration as a socio-economic safety valve. These include the chronic employment crisis, which makes it difficult for young men and women of all categories to find employment.
Finally, the establishment of quasi-institutionalized armed groups shortly after the advent of the ‘locked country’, which seemed to have been part of the strategy to block anti-government political mobilizations, marks the start of a sixth wave. This wave has the particularity of linking ecological migrations, caused by natural disasters, to those generated by the violence of armed groups in working-class neighborhoods, as well as to the denial of citizens’ rights to movement, education and food. It is clear that these situations have not only confirmed Haiti’s role as a country of emigration, but also as a supplier of labor. This assertion is all the more true given that certain countries, including Brazil, Chile, Canada and the United States, have arrogated to themselves the right to design their own humanitarian emigration programs for young Haitians. The United States and Canada, for example, have set up their own dynamics, of which the US TPS program and the so-called ‘Biden program’ are perfect examples.


In Terra incognita haitiana, Georges Anglade (2008) has attempted an initial assessment in a positive tone. According to him, there are already fourteen to fifteen million of us in the world, a third of them abroad. What’s more, he adds, ‘Neighbouring and friendly countries would like to see this potential torrent wisely harnessed in its 27,700 km2 enclosure. But a third of them have already jumped the fence… irresistibly’ (Anglade, 2008:11).

Starting from these considerations as a powerful factor of expulsion, there is an invitation to take stock of a century and more of Haitian emigration. With this in mind, Terra incognita haitiana provides a good basis for questioning both the positive and negative dimensions of migration, including the ‘deaccumulation of the century’: the decapitalization in terms of brain drain that could have benefited Haitian society. So, should we argue, following Anglade (ibid.), that the de-accumulation of the century also has its positive aspect? Or how can we understand the political, economic, social and cultural repercussions of emigration in Haiti at macro, meso and micro levels? This thematic dossier therefore encourages contributions that address the field by taking into account both the discourses constructed around the fact on the ground while questioning the conceptual and theoretical frameworks approaching these migrations. Ultimately, the dossier will welcome contributions from different disciplines, spanning diverse geographical terrains and drawing on different conceptual frameworks. The editors will also pay close attention to the description of the methods and contexts of inquiry that will be brought into the present issue. The dossier is structured around, but not limited to, the following four themes:

  1. The positive aspects of Haitian migration: diasporization. Some contributors may consider the positive aspects of this century of emigration in Anglade’s sense: the diasporization of a third of the population and its importance for Haiti. The decapitalization of the country or Anglade’s ‘great desaccumulation’.

  2. A second axis can envisage the opposite situation: the negative consequences of the great ‘deaccumulation’, so much emphasized by Anglade! Among other things, this involves analyzing the short-, medium- and long-term disadvantages of the country’s decapitalization in general.

  3. Gender in Haitian migration: old and new trends. This theme considers the feminization of Haitian migration to be a key issue in understanding the way in which gender relations traverse the field, both historically and sociologically. Similarly, it is possible to link migration to the feminization of household heads in Haiti (Jean Simon et al., 2023).

  4. Finally, a fourth axis for dealing with the Haitian migratory configuration in the Americas would be enriching. Although Anglade (ibid.) puts forward the hypothesis that a third of the Haitian population is already expatriated, the veracity of the facts remains unproven. Demonstration is all the more necessary given that, for a variety of reasons, some actors are tending to increase the number of Haitian migrants. This is the case in the Dominican Republic, where the hypothesis of a Haitian invasion is evoked. What is the statistical and sociological reality if the dramatization of Haitian migration is far from corresponding to its actual participation in global and regional migratory movements?

The journal accepts original contributions in French, English and Spanish. Article abstracts will be translated into these three languages.

Calendar

Please follow the instructions to authors before submitting your contributions to: lamoursabine@ymail.com and aleripierre07@gmail.com

  • February 28th, 2025: Submission of article proposals (500-word abstract).

  • July 15, 2025: Submission of articles
  • November 10th, 2025: Submission of finalized texts by authors.
  • December 2025: Publication of thematic issue

Issue coordination

  • Dr. Sabine Lamour (Université d’État d’Haïti/Brown University-Guest Professor)
  • Dr. Alfred Pierre (Université de Montréal/Ex-professeur à l’Université d’État d’Haïti)

Bibliographie

Alexandre, G. (2013). Pour Haïti. Pour la République dominicaine. Interventions, positions et propositions pour une gestion responsable des relations bilatérales. C3 Éditions.

Anglade, G. (1982). Atlas critique d’Haïti. Avec 18 planches couleur. https://web.archive.org/web/20180719231829id_/http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/anglade_georges/atlas_critique_haiti/atlas_critique_haiti.pdf

Anglade, G. (2008). Terra incognita Haïtiana. Discours d’intronisation du centre haïtien du P.E.N. international au réseau mondial des centre P.E.N. http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/anglade_georges/terra_incognita_haitiana/terra_incognita_haitiana.pdf

Balch, E. G. (1927). Occupied Haiti. Prescott. Writers' Publishing Company.

Bourdieu, P. (1993). Esprits d'État : Genèse et structure du champ bureaucratique, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 96-97, 49–62, https://doi.org/10.3917/arss.p1993.96n1.0049.

Bourdieu, P., Christin, O. et al. (2000). Sur la science de l'État, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 133, 3–11, https://doi.org/10.3406/arss.2000.2673.

Carrera, G. B. (2014). Pourquoi migrer ? Notes sur veilles et nouvelles blessures d’Haïti. Cahiers migratoires, n° 6. OIM Bureau régional pour l’Amérique du Sud.

Castor, S. (1988). L’occupation américaine d’Haïti. Pétion-ville. Henri Deschamps.

Docquier, F. (2007). Fuite des cerveaux et inégalités entre pays, Revue d'économie du développement, 15, 49–88, https://doi.org/10.3917/edd.212.0049.

Domenach, H. (2002), L’évolution au XXe siècle du système démographique et migratoire caribéen, Diasporas caribéennes, n° 1237, mai-juin 2002, 13–25.

Jean Simon, D., Joissaint, K., et al. (2023). La féminisation de chefs de ménage à Haïti. Études caribéennes, 56, https://doi.org/10.4000/etudescaribeennes.29921.

Lamour, S. (2018). Partir pour mieux s'enraciner ou retour sur la fabrique du poto-mitan en Haïti, dans Déjouer le silence, contre discours sur les femmes haïtiennes. Paris. Remue-Ménage.

Paul, B. (2020). Haïti : terre de migrations depuis toujours. In Beaulière, A. (éd.), L’Immigration en Partage : Histoires d’Ici et de Là-bas. Paris. Un Point C’est Tout.

Pierre, A. (2014). Migration haïtienne. État des lieux sur une problématique. https://www.ilo.org/fr/publications/migration-haitienne-etat-des-lieux-sur-une-problematique#:~:text=Ce%20texte%20est%20un%20%C3%A9tat,le%20march%C3%A9%20du%20travail%20local.


Date(s)

  • Friday, February 28, 2025

Keywords

  • migration, Haïti, société, diasporisation, désaccumulation, féminisation

Contact(s)

  • Olivier DEHOORNE
    courriel : dehoorneo [at] gmail [dot] com

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Hélène Wachtel
    courriel : helene [dot] wachtel [at] univ-antilles [dot] fr

License

CC-BY-4.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .

To cite this announcement

Sabine Lamour, Alfred Pierre, « Current State of Haitian Migration », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, January 20, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/1344e

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