Haitians in the Dominican Republic
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
Total population of Haitian ancestry 458,233 (2013) (5% of the Dominican population) Dominicans born to both a Haitian and a Dominican parent 105,381 (2012) (1% of the Dominican population) Haitians born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents 104,531 (2013) (1% of the Dominican population) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| The borderland, the North-Western Cibao valley, and the Southeastern (including Santo Domingo) region | |
| Languages | |
| First language: Haitian Creole (96.3%), Spanish (1.7%), French (1.5%) Speak Spanish: 73.8% |
|
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Adventism, African traditional religions, Other |
Total population of Haitian ancestry
800,000~ (2008)
Haitians in the Dominican Republic (Dominico-Haitians) are citizens of ethnic Haitian descent. They may be Dominican citizens, Haitian citizens or non-citizen immigrants. Since the early 20th century, Haitians have made up the largest immigrant population in the Dominican Republic.
After the Dominican War of Independence ended, Haitian immigration to the Dominican Republic was focalized in the border area; this immigration was encouraged by the Haitian government and consisted of peasants who crossed the border to the Dominican Republic because of the land scarcity in Haiti; in 1874 the Haitian military occupied La Miel valley and Rancho Mateo. In 1899 the Haitian government claimed the center-west and the south-west of the Dominican Republic, including western Lake Enriquillo, as it estimated that Haitians had become the majority in that area.
However, the arrival of Haitians to the rest of the country began after the United States occupation of Haiti and the Dominican Republic around 1916, when US-owned sugar companies imported, annually, thousands of Haitian workers to cut costs.
The 1935 census revealed that several border towns were of Haitian majority; between 1920 and 1935 the Haitian population in the Dominican Republic doubled. In 1936, Haiti received several of these villages located in La Miel valley after a revision of the borderline. Between 1935 and 1937 the dictator Rafael L. Trujillo imposed restrictions on foreign labor and ordered the deportation of Haitians in the border area, but these measures failed due to a corruption scheme involving Dominican military men, civil authorities, and US-owned sugar companies, in the trafficking of undocumented Haitian immigrants. After April 1937, Cuba began the deportation of thousands of Haitians; this led to the arrival of unemployed Haitians en masse to the Dominican Republic. In August 1937, amid a tour to border towns, Trujillo received complaints of looting, pillaging and cattle raiding, and people insinuated that he had no control over the Haitians. Drunk at a soirée, Trujillo decided that every Haitian should be annihilated. Lieutenant Adolf "Boy" Frappier, a German adviser to President Trujillo, advised him to use the shibboleth perejil (Spanish for "parsley") to identify Haitians by their accent, because the "r" in perejil was difficult for Haitians to pronounce it properly. Thousands died along the borderland, the Northwest Line and the Cibao, and thousands more fled to Haiti; Haitians that were working for the American sugar companies, or living in the East of the country, were not harmed.
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Wikipedia