" The other " amongst Haitian & Dominican youth in the borderlands

“The other” amongst Haitian & Dominican youth in the borderlands Jørgen Sørlie Yri NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and technology [email protected] Introduction and research questions ............................................................................................ 1 Brief theoretical remarks ............................................................................................................... 2 Studying dialogue and studying differences ...........................................................................................2 Why does difference matter? ..............................................................................................................3 Perceptions of the other and remarks on the borderlands ....................................................................4 What do the youth of the borderlands think of the other? And how do the views differ and concur? .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Threats to the nation ..............................................................................................................................6 Perceptions of difference and different perceptions ..............................................................................7 Border of lights? ....................................................................................................................................10 Brief conclusions ..........................................................................................................................11 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................11 Endnotes ......................................................................................................................................12 Introduction and research questions What do the young people, living in the border towns, think about their neighbors, just on the other side of the border? Do the views differ much from the Haitian side to the Dominican? And, if so, how do they differ and why? And at last: why is this knowledge important? These are my research questions for this essay. During 2013 I was a visiting researcher at the OBMICA office in Santo Domingo, doing field work for my PhD. I visited the Dominican-Haitian borderlands1. I interviewed groups of young Dominicans and Haitians and surveyed approximately 250 teenagers. This fieldwork was a part of a bigger project, in which I set out to analyze the effects of a Norwegian Church Aid sponsored dialogue project in that same area, known as “The Nobel Project”2. On this occasion I will not debate the success rate of this particular dialogue project. I will focus on the views and perceptions that I found amongst the youth and the possible importance of knowing about this. Brief theoretical remarks Studying dialogue and studying differences Not much has been written on the youth’s perspective on the Dominican-Haitian relations, and less so on the borderland youth’s point of view. However, it is my opinion that they should be consulted when seeking pathways towards a more productive coexistence on the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. As the case is, there is not even a single agreed upon name for the whole island, that doesn’t provoke a sentiment of possible resentment one side or the other (Balacer, 2012; Caeara Hatton, Marsteintredet, & Yri, 2016; Doucet, 2014), so for this essay I’ll refer to the respective nations’ names. The youth and the young adults are the ones who must carry the future of this island, so working with them to achieve change, sounds reasonable. In this process, dialogue is key, and in order to have dialogue, one cannot force views upon those involved. All to the contrary. We need to study and respect their views as they are. This includes the view each side has of the other, that is how the young Haitians view the Dominicans and vice versa. Theoretically, I’m leaning on Paulo Freire regarding dialogue. When it comes to “the other”, I’m essentially talking about studying perceptions of difference, a quite common approach in different fields of cultural studies. Paulo Freire wrote, back in 1968, that “leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people - they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.” (Freire, 1968/1999). Through dialogue, we can avoid imposing views on the groups at hand, in this case the youths of the borderlands. However, the process of including the youth simultaneously dictates that we know – or seek to find out - how they perceive the world they are living it. The truth must be found within the groups, through dialogue. In Freire’s mindset, we should inspire dialogue, not bring readymade solutions. Truth is therefore created; truth is not brought from the outside or from above. The second remark is on the importance of differences. Why does difference matter? A study, like my own, of the Dominicans and Haitians and their view and perceptions of “the other” is a common approach within cultural studies, and what we are essentially studying is difference. Identifying differences between groups that are in some kind of conflict is of great interest and importance. Stuart Hall, a sociologist and a cultural theorist listed theoretical accounts of why difference matter, and how it has been studied. The linguistic approach argues that we study difference because it is essential to meaning. Without it, meaning would not exist. Binary oppositions, like “black” and “white”, do not carry significance in their own, but rather as a contrast to the other. However, Hall also quotes the French philosopher Derrida on the subject of these binary oppositions. Opposing poles will carry unequal weight, so we must not forget the concept of “power” – who has it and who hasn’t – when we are talking about differences. We may also view differences as a tool for creating meaning of the world. Studying “the other” is essential to meaning, because meaning arises “through the difference between the participants in any dialogue” (Hall, 1997). The truth about meaning is created and negotiated and only exists as a result of this negotiation. The final approach to the importance of difference, relevant for my research, is known from anthropology. We organize our world based on differences, which we use to create systems of classifications that we know as “culture”. However, when cultures are perceived to be threatened, many cultures “retrieve towards closure towards foreigners, intruders, aliens, and “others” – in what Julia Kristeva called “a process of purification” (Hall, 1997). Studying differences is studying the way we create ourselves and each other. Dialogue is about breaking down dogmas and renegotiating perceptions of the other. So the combination of creating dialogue and knowing about perceptions about differences between the dialoging groups is potentially powerful. Perceptions of the other and remarks on the borderlands Another underlying factor to take into account when studying the differences in perception between Haitians and Dominicans of each other, is the notable difference when it comes to the importance given to the neighbor inside the two nations. As Maria Cristina Fumagalli points out in her excellent and extensive study of the Dominican-Haitian border, On the edge (Fumagalli, 2015), the Dominicans in general pay a lot more attention to the Haitians than the other way around. As an illustration to this, Fumagalli uses an example from a Dominican student of Geography and his definition of the Dominican Republic as “an island surrounded by the sea and Haitians on all sides”. Fumagalli then moves on to include two important voices, both stating that on the Haitian side, there is little or no interest in the Dominican Republic, apart from being on the receiving end of Haitian migrant workers’ search for better living conditions: As far as the Haitians are concerned, “the Dominican Republic might as well be on the other side of the planet”, anthropologist Samuel Martínez noted in his 2003 article Not a Cockfight: Rethinking Haitian-Dominican Relations, in which he examines the Dominican-Haitian relations, questioning wide-spread ideas of this conflict’s nature and inevitability (Martínez, 2003). Fumagalli also quotes the former ambassador of Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Guy Alexandre (Fumagalli, 2015), who in his article Visión haitiana sobre la frontera de Cara al Siglo XX (Alexandre, 2004) stated that not only are matters of the Dominican Republic foreign to the attention of media, literature, politicians and intellectuals, but there has also been a continued neglect of the borderlands from the Haitian governments, that have never really invested in the area. Although I have found no reason to dispute the before mentioned statements and their validity, all to the contrary, I do believe that the general perceptions regarding both nations’ view of each other might not be fully confirmed when studying the borderlands. Additionally, I suspect that future studies of perceptions of “the other” amongst Haitians and Dominicans will be influenced by the repercussions of the Dominican Constitutional Court’s 2013 ruling regarding citizenship in the Dominican Republic. As an example of this, there was a 2014 survey conducted in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, indicating that a somewhat surprising 26 % of the respondents feared a Dominican invasion of Haiti. When asked why they feared such an invasion, the most common responses where “because they (the Dominicans) detest the Haitians” (34 %) and “vengeance” (36 %) (L'Information, 2014). So, while possibly subject to a future change due to recent events, the general idea remains that the Dominicans are significantly more concerned with the Haitians, than the other way around. The final remark is on how my respondents constitute an important part of the history on the Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic. This migration history in itself is of course nothing new, neither as a migration pattern nor as a field of study and of attention to the public., even though the migration did become more visible to the average Dominican (as the migration patterns turned more urban with the decreased importance of the sugar plantations) during the first decades of our millennium, as noted by FLACSO in 2004, in their survey on the new Haitian migration (FLACSO, 2004). The Haitian historian Jean Price-Mars pointed to what he labeled a “rural exodus of Haitian workers” already in 1953, signaling at that point in time, that this was indeed nothing new, all to the contrary: this had been going on already for several decades. This was due to a series of different circumstances, including what he described as uncertainties regarding the limits that separate the two territories (Price-Mars, 1953/2000, pp. 776 - 777). The Haitians have been migrating to the Dominican Republic all throughout the last more than a hundred years. The Haitian presence in the Dominican Republic is both unique and typical at the same time. It fits into the general international tendencies of migration, in that it’s a migration flow where both the migrants and the receiving country belong to the Global South, or developing nations. It’s slightly more common for a person to migrate from a one developing country to another, than to migrate from a developing country to a developed country (Grullón, 2014). The Caribbean and Latin America provide for a mere 16 % of the World’s migrants, however the main tendency within this particular group of migrants is a migration to the economic North (ibid 2013). In general, the Caribbean is a region of migrants. For instance, the two islands of Dominica (an independent nation) and Montserrat (a nonsovereign state under the UK) of the Lesser Antilles actually have a total number of emigrants living abroad that is superior to the total national population currently residing in the islands. (ibid 2013). The Dominicans migrate to the US and Europe, primarily to the US, and the Haitians migrate to a series of places. “Haiti’s 2013 net migration statistic is −5.5 migrants per 1000 people in the population, meaning that the outflow of individuals exceeds inflow. The Haitian diaspora has established the largest ethnocommunal enclaves in primarily the Dominican Republic, Canada, and especially the United States” (Fang, 2015). Most of these migrants cross the border through, or close to, the border towns where I did my field work. “According to the first National Survey on Immigrants, ENI 2012, 87,7 per cent of immigrants to the DR arrive in cross-border migration from Haiti” (ONE, 2013). This means that the borderland youths on either side are likely to encounter this migration in their everyday lives, although differently on their respective sides of the border. And therefore, the borderland youths become a part of the international migrant puzzle, as well as being a part of their respective nations. Their perceptions may belong not only to themselves and to the general ideas that the Dominicans and the Haitians may have of each other, but they could be viewed as well as the views of youths living in an extremely porous part of their nations, in which “everybody” migrates or has someone close who indeed has travelled abroad3. What do the youth of the borderlands think of the other? And how do the views differ and concur? Threats to the nation Both the youth interviewed and the respondents of my survey coincide that a change in the relationship between the two nations is necessary. 72 % of the Haitians and 88 % on the Dominican side feel that way. Violence, crime and corruption are the three most mentioned threats to the Dominican Republic in their view. Unemployment and drug-trafficking share the fourth spot. On the Haitian side, the biggest perceived threats are unemployment, violence and crime, followed by drug-trafficking and politicians on a shared fourth spot. This means that neither group perceives the other nation to be a relevant threat to their own nation’s wellbeing4, the threats are mainly domestic. However – as I will comment on later: on a personal level they are indeed afraid of each other, to a certain extent. Another idea that I was eager to find out about was that of a silent Haitian invasion of the Dominican Republic. It is an idea that has been expressed in many different shapes5 in the Dominican Republic. A somewhat surprising 41 % on the Haitian side confirmed this idea. On the Dominican side, the respondents are aligned, more or less, with their Haitian counterparts. 45 % of the Dominicans asked also agree that a Haitian silent invasion is underway. When asked “How many Haitians are there in the Dominican Republic?”, both the Haitians and the Dominicans believed it to be “more than two million Haitians” in the Dominican Republic. That’s at least three times as many Haitians as there actually are in the DR., according to Dominican authorities (Grullón, 2014; ONE, 2012, 2013). Perceptions of difference and different perceptions The two most chosen words on the Haitian side, when asked what best described the Dominican – Haitian relations were “cooperation” and “trade”. The Dominicans, on the other hand, say that conflict is more present than cooperation, and that problems between Haitians and Dominicans are frequently resolved by means of violence. As one of the respondents stated: "when there’s a problem between a Dominican and a Haitian, each groups up like they were football teams, to fight” This kind of enouncement is very frequent and representative. The presence of violence and fear is notable. Almost half of the Haitians answer that they actually fear the Dominicans, not so much the other way around, but still a noteworthy 33 % claim to fear the Haitians. The reasons for this Dominican fear vary, like in these assorted examples: "because they are very noisy and “brujos” (warlocks or witches)", "they’re very strange and that scares me", "they do a lot of witchcraft and a lot of evil”, "even though they all don’t have the same heart, some rape young girls and kill them”, "I don’t like their culture". All of which are quite typical declarations, both amongst the interviewed as well as the surveyed. Contrary to what one might suspect from the outside, when the Dominicans were asked what they associate with a Haitian, the most frequent response was neutral or positive. For instance, “a Haitian is a person from Haiti”, “our neighbors”, “a person of another race, but similar to us”, “hard workers”. And more descriptive ones, like “black”, “doesn’t understand Spanish”, “Kreyol”, “trade”. However, a significant minority also had much more negative perceptions of how the Haitians were different to the Dominicans: “persons of low quality”, “persons with bad hygiene”, “they are harmful to the Spanish language”, “ugly”, “disgusting”, “they want to take over the island”, as examples. When asked specifically about what are the differences between Dominicans and Haitians, the Dominicans responded much in the same fashion. Mainly neutral, descriptive and/or positive. On this question, however, a few historically well-known perceptions about the Haitian arose: “they have bad hair and we have good hair”. “The Haitians are black and the Dominicans are white”. “They are liars and we are pure”. “They think they are superior to us”. “They fight with us over the island”. The Dominican view of the Haitian as a being in contact with supernatural powers is alive, if not all consuming, as this piece of dialogue between myself and a focal group is but one example of: Focal group (FG): I saw a movie once where a Haitian transformed another man into an animal. Interviewer (I): Ay, ay, ay! But do you really think that this has happened? FG: yes! (everybody at once). I: Okay, so, this really happened, that a Haitian was able to... FG: yes, yes! After they transformed him into an animal, they sell him. I: Oh! But, if so, is it dangerous to cross the border? FG: No.6 On the Haitian side, the attitudes are also notably fearful, as some of the responses show: "the Dominicans like to kill Haitians", "they like to abuse the Haitians", "they stab the Haitians", Several others mentioned the fear of receiving one or more "machetazos" – a hit with a machete. Although the Haitians too have their fair share of neutral or positive descriptions, including that they remember well the help from the Dominicans after the earthquake in 2010, there are more negative responses on the Haitian side. “They’ve done me a lot of harm”, “they’re criminals, they’re not people”, “they always think that they’re superior to us”, “Dominicans have more evil in them than the Haitians”, “I respect their nation, but they harm us way too much”, “a racist nation, they see us as dogs”. I suspect that this a reflection of experiences from their lives, at least there is no direct indication in my data that the negative responses come from school. 75 % of the Haitians said that their teachers had spoken positively about the Dominican Republic in class, and only 23 % answered that teachers had spoken badly of the Dominican Republic. The numbers for Haiti are practically identical. These are findings that of course should be used with caution, as my survey shows nothing more in-depth on what kind of announcements have been made in class, nor of the frequency of these utterings. A young Haitian girl reported about her experiences from crossing the border into the Dominican Republic: "When I’m going to Pedernales, they (the immigration officers) ask me for money, and there are those who take advantage of me sexually". Sadly, this is no lone matter. In a report released in 2012, the researchers Bridget Wooding and Allison Petroziello (Petrozziello & Wooding, 2012) stated that “there are high levels of routine violence against women in the region, which takes on various forms: physical, sexual, economic, and verbal/psychological violence, as well as high risks of illicit human smuggling and trafficking, including for purposes of forced sex work”. Several of the Haitians I surveyed answered that they had been asked to pay bribes when crossing the border, and they also reported physical abuse from the migration officers. This was not the case at all amongst the Dominicans. 98 % of them had never had any problems while crossing the border. 51 % of the Haitian youngsters indeed reported on having faced problems at the border. Even though this should come as no surprise, it confirms the positions of one of the groups as the stronger, and the other as a weaker part, at the mercy of the stronger. It’s an important factor to take into account. Reality lived in the borderlands tell the youth almost on a daily basis that they are in fact not equal. When asked specifically about the differences between the two countries, a Haitian simply stated that “everything is different”. Others were slightly more specific, with references to skin color, religion, nationality and language. And here as well, there were mentions of conflict, on the Haitian side. “they would like us to be under their command, and I don’t like that”, “we’re prettier than them”, “Dominicans regularly do more evil than Haitians” as typical examples. Frequently there was also talk of the unequal economic and infrastructural conditions between the two countries. Both Dominicans and Haitians view the other as more criminal than themselves which also combines well with the trust issues. Only 25 % of the Dominicans feel that a Haitian can be trusted like a Dominican. The corresponding numbers for Haiti is similar. A Dominican can’t be trusted like a Haitian. However, this is not necessarily a race thing, because an 88 % of the Dominicans and a 63 % of the Haitians don’t feel that race is any indicator of whether or not you can trust someone. Border of lights? There are also lots of positives to be taken from what the young people of the border have to say. Almost all of the Dominicans surveyed indicate that they have friends from Haiti, and more than half of the Haitians say the same. Most of the interviewees clearly defend the necessity of meeting each other across the border. Having crossed the border, to share, play or to go to Dominican-Haitian camps they consider something very valuable in their lives. And even though the fear is notable, the opposite is also present. “Are you afraid of the Haitians?” 67 % of the Dominicans says no. Most of the Haitians asked did believe that Dominicans would help Haitians out in a crisis (the 2010 earthquake as an example), but they were less sure (42 % “yes”) that the Haitians would help the Dominicans out. And on the question of whether a person born in a country deserved the right to become a citizen, 81 % of the Dominican stated that indeed they did deserve that right. A 55 % also thought this to be valid for a child born to undocumented parents7. My survey also showed that on both sides of the border they listen to the other nation’s music are informed more or less on the news. The Dominicans (94%) and the Haitians (73 %) also agree that the binational markets were of mutual benefit. Brief conclusions A lot of the perceptions of “the other” are shared on both sides of the border. Both the positives and the negatives. They have friends of both nationalities. They listen to each other’s music. They both agree that the main threats to their nation are domestic, and not the neighbor, while simultaneously also agreeing that there is indeed a “silent invasion” of Haitians to the DR going on. They both hate – and don’t hate – each other at the same time. They fear, and don’t fear, each other. Both sides are openly racist towards one another, and both sides agree that race is of no concern in matters of trust. The Dominican is above all worried about losing a culture or their own way of living. This is another kind of fear than the Haitians’ fear. There are clear indications that the Haitian youth view themselves a more exposed to violence and abuse than the Dominicans, and that their concerns are solidly substantiated. This asymmetric relation reflects the economic power balance between the two nations. And – like I said – the youth live these experiences every day, telling them that they are indeed unequal. The youths of the borderland show all the complexity of the Dominican-Haitian relations, but they add to the mix the relative ease of frequent contact and every day friendships. This everyday non-polar greyness, which also is found could be a fruitful way forward, but if that is to happen, the youth and their perceptions and their opinions must be included, respected and understood. Bibliography Alexandre, G. (2004). Visión Haitiana sobre la Frontera de Cara al Siglo XX. Santo Domingo: Editora de las Fuerzas Armadas Dominicanas. Balacer, J. D. (2012, 29.09.2012). ¿Cuál es el nombre de nuestra isla? Diario Libre. Caeara Hatton, M., Marsteintredet, L., & Yri, J. S. (2016). Introducción: La brecha creciente. Una comparación de la situación socioeconómica y demográfica de la República Dominicana y Haití. Iberoamericana. Doucet, R. (2014, 12.02.2014). "Quisqueya", "Quisqueyens", les enjexu d'une appellation. Le Nouvelliste. Fang, K. (2015). The Importance of the Diaspora’s Investment in Haiti. The Yale Review of INternational studies. FLACSO. (2004). Encuesta sobre inmigrantes haitianos en la República Dominicana. Retrieved from Santo Domingo: Freire, P. (1968/1999). De undertryktes pedagogikk. Oslo: Gyldendal. Fumagalli, M. C. (2015). On the edge - writing the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Grullón, A. R. (2014). Estado del arte de las migraciones que atañen a la República Dominicana 2013. Retrieved from Hall, S. (1997). The Spectacle of the "Other" Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (pp. 223 - 279). London: SAGE / Open University. L'Information, L. M. d. (2014). Les dominicains: anmis ou ennemis? . Retrieved from Port-auPrince: Martínez, S. (2003). Not a Cockfight: Rethinking Haitian-Dominican Relations. Latin American Perspectives, 30(3 - Popular Participation against Neoliberalism), 80 - 101. ONE. (2012). ONE Informativa No 1. Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas. ONE. (2013). Primera encuesta nacional de inmigrantes en la República Dominicana - ENI-2012. Retrieved from Santo Domingo: Petrozziello, A. J., & Wooding, B. (2012). Fanm nan fwontyè, fanm toupatou: Making visible the violence against Haitian migrant, in-transit and displaced women on the Dominican-Haitian border. . Retrieved from Santo Domingo: Price-Mars, J. (1953/2000). La República de Haití y la República Dominicana (4 ed. Vol. 2). Santo Domingo: Editora Taller. Endnotes 1 Dajabón, Ouanaminthe, Belladere, Comendador, Jimaní, Fond Parisienne, Anse-a-Pitres and Pedernales 2 The main objective of this dialogue was to bring youth from both sides of the border closer to one another, in order to create what was labeled a “culture of peace”. Both the Haitian and the Dominican representatives had their respective headquarters in the capital cities, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and here in Port-au-Prince in Haiti, but the target groups were always the youth of the borderlands. 3 84 % of my surveyed Haitians informed that they had members in their immediate family who had migrated to another country, and the same was true on the Dominican side, where 80 % responded the same. 4 A mere 1 % of the Dominicans surveyed found that “international organisms” posed a serious threat to their country, in spite of the ongoing media campaigns by prominent figures like Peregrin Castillo and Manuel Núñez claiming that the Dominican Republic is under attack by the INOG. 5 I was told myself, by the then ambassador of Dominican-Haitian relations, at the Dominican ministry of Foreign affairs in Santo Domingo (2013), that the Dominican Republic was being “swallowed by a black wave from the West”, and he again claimed to be quoting an “American embassy employee”, with no firther identification given. 6 Transcript from an interview in Comendador, on the Dominican side. 1= me, 2= interviewees. 1: ”Yo vi una película que un haitiano transformó a otro hombre en un animal. 2: Ay, ay, ay! Pero ustedes creen que eso ha pasado? 1: Sí, (todos dijeron que sí) 2: O sea que en realidad eso ha pasado que el haitiano ha podido… 1: Sí. Después que lo convierten en animal lo mandan a vender. 1: Oh! ¿Pero entonces, hay peligro cruzando la frontera? P: No.” 7 This data was collected a few months before the 168/13-ruling in the Dominican Tribunal Court, I will add.