While in PAP I went to a compound in mid city that had small apartments to rent , pool and restaurant . Post earthquake quarters.
There were about a dozen of the affluent Haitians there having a birthday party. All very light and a few whites.
When my Engineer and me were leaving they did not move out of the way, as they were standing in the cement pathway.
They spoke only English with very few french words and treated my associate and me with disrespect. Si I politely and firmly asked them to move out of the way. They moved , but with an arrogant attitude. They are called the ''privileged'' ... and despise the blacks as much as the blacks despise them. Reminds me of my time in Barbados where much the same attitudes existed between the ''Africans'' (Bajans) and the Europeans (Barbadians) .. but interesting just the same. My Engineer friend who was educated at University of Buffalo USA , said that they remain in Haiti because if they moved elsewhere they would be called Negro.... regardless of shade...there is a new book for someone to write ''shades of brown''.
I think on some parts your US educated friend embellish a little on both, the reason for staying and the labels assumed in other countries.
On the first there are many reasons, most importantly most of their family still lives in Haiti and family bonds are strong, the money making opportunities for them are in Haiti due to the networks their families created centuries ago, the desire to live life within a Haitian ambiance could be stronger than anything else, and a very long etc.
The second one simply isn’t true in many countries. Sure, that might be the case in the USA (and even there it’s changing), but in most countries mixed people are seen as mixed, for the most part. That’s also the case in much of Africa as well. What the upper class mixed Haitian might not have abroad is the privilige that automatically comes with their last name in their native country.
For some neither the prestige of the last name in the home country or family ties or anything else is enough to offset the desire to live in a different country. Sometimes certain aspects of the native country (the way politics works, the disregard for public places on part of the people and the government, crime levels, issues of underdevelopment that affects everyone, etc) are simply too much to be offset by the positives the country offers to the priviliged group. These are usually the ones living in the US, Canada or even in France, which are the preferred places for upper class Haitians that wish to live outside Haiti.
Those that belong to families persecuted by certain politicians also have another country added to the list and that’s the DR itself. Even rich Haitians that lived for years in developed countries, when they decide its time to return to the island but Haiti’s issues are too much for them to bare, the DR becomes the chosen spot. This last part was confided to me by a Haitian acquaintance that I’ve known since my university days. Her words was that the DR is now the place to be, because its the same island and the closest to Haiti which allows for constant short trips ‘home’ without exposing themselves too much to the incoveniences of Haitian life and especially the kidnappings. Kidnappings is the main worry among moneyed Haitians.