Where are all these Haitians coming from !

In a word, Haiti.

Chiri,

That was a good one..LOL

Haitians.

Kyle said:

everytime i visit the North Coast i see more Haitian women around at night than dominican women. what's the deal !! btw, there are quite a few Haitian men around too !!
i just read where Bavaro and Puerto Plata has like 80% Haitian 20% Dominican in the tourism industry.

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Without Haitians to do all the heavy construction/sugarcane cutting etc, the DR would be in deep trouble. There is presently a lot of construction/pipe-laying, etc in the Puerto Plata area, so the Haitians are more visible. They ALL work, from the tots that beg, sell peanut brittle, the women who beg (sometimes with borrowed babies), sell clothing at the fleamarkets and fruit at the beach, sell meals to the Haitian men who are in construction & so on.
Their living conditions are vile....Canadian Bob.

Chirimoya said:

In a word, Haiti.

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Haha. You beat me to it.

Larry

they come from haiti ;o)

they come for the jobs that dominicans do not/will not take b/c it's beneath them ie. construction.

food for thought

skyblue said:

they come from haiti ;o)

they come for the jobs that dominicans do not/will not take b/c it's beneath them ie. construction.

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if they were beneath them they wouldn't be doing them in other countires

aegap, you said it "in other countries" they will not do these jobs in their own country. i've met people who really NEED to be working b/c they live in barrios and don't have a pot to **** in and they still won't work construction. when they are face with the reality of living in "another" country where they don't speak the language and don't have any skills to get a better job, they have no choice, but to do it b/c there is NO FREE RIDE anywhere except DR. in "another" country they cannot steal electricity and squat in other peoples houses - they have to WORK for a living like the rest of us.

canadian bob said:

Without Haitians to do all the heavy construction/sugarcane cutting etc, the DR would be in deep trouble. There is presently a lot of construction/pipe-laying, etc in the Puerto Plata area, so the Haitians are more visible.

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The government wants to crack down on the tourism industry for employing more that 20% non-Dominican nationals yet these government project construction contractors don't seem to be concerned with the law.

HOWMAR said:

The government wants to crack down on the tourism industry for employing more that 20% non-Dominican nationals yet these government project construction contractors don't seem to be concerned with the law.

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..Chiri had a great peace about this in a blog...but I can't seem to find it.

I once commented the Dominican government is the largest employer of Haitians in the world.

There are probably more Haitians working in DR than in Haiti itself!:

An estimated 700,000 to 1 million Haitians, most of them illegal, live in the Dominican Republic, home to 8.8 million people. Haitians come in by foot over the border bridges, holding tight to their visas, or wading below those bridges, without papers. They pour across the 243-mile frontier hiding in the backs of cramped trucks, and in the trucks of cars. They come for one reason.
...
Haiti, a country about half the size of the Dominican Republic, has more than 75 percent unemployment, according to the CIA World Factbook.

(Christian Science Monitor)

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skyblue said:

aegap, you said it "in other countries" they will not do these jobs in their own country. i've met people who really NEED to be working b/c they live in barrios and don't have a pot to **** in and they still won't work construction. when they are face with the reality of living in "another" country where they don't speak the language and don't have any skills to get a better job, they have no choice, but to do it b/c there is NO FREE RIDE anywhere except DR. in "another" country they cannot steal electricity and squat in other peoples houses - they have to WORK for a living like the rest of us.

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People will do anything at the right price.

Dominicans don't pick coffee on Dominican soil because such job pays too little. In fact, it's an insult to most Dominicans, thus they don't do those jobs.

However, in Puerto Rico Dominicans ARE the one's picking coffee. Coincidence?

The question should be: Why are such jobs paying so low in the DR?

Answer: Supply and demand. The more labor increase, the lower the price.

The biggest issue with Haitian migrants is that the overwhelming majority are in the country illegally and thus, the price of labor for the lowly jobs are artificially lower than what they should be.

Plain and simple.

Will you take a job in the DR at whatever profession/specialty you are good at? Why not? Don't like the pay? Only if they pay you in dollars? Well don't worry, there is a Haitian who will do the job at a fraction of what you will be willing to do the job for.

Thus, there is no need for you!

Oh oh.

BTW, it's not just Haitians who are forcing Dominicans out of the low paying jobs. On the other end of the scale there are Colombians, Venezuelans, and people from other Latin countries replacing Dominicans there too.

The Dominican Republic may well be in the process of becoming a country without Dominicans. Cubans, Venezuelans, and Colombians fill the professions and Haitians do the lowly jobs. Dominicans? Dispersed across the world.

-NALs

canadian bob said:

Without Haitians to do all the heavy construction/sugarcane cutting etc, the DR would be in deep trouble. Canadian Bob.

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Well CB, if the Haitians were to disappear at the blink of an eye, yes you are right.

But, a gradual decrease allows for modifications to be made in order for the economy to keep flowing flawlessly.

Much how the price of labor at the lower end of jobs available is falling very fast, it's mostly due to large influx of illegal migrants into the country. If, however, they were to enter in a systematic gradual fashion, the price of labor would not fall so fast and allow for people to live a more comfortable/humane lifestyle.

I think every Dominican already knows that the days of the DR are numbered already. Supposedly, there are many high ranking military personnels of Haitian decent who are claiming that "the island is one indivisible and that Haitians will prevail".

They may be saying the truth, unless the Aids epidemic affecting Haitians catches up and ruins what now may seem inevitable. Sometimes nature changes the course of history, the Brits know this from what happened to the Spanish Armada. No?

-NALs

NALs said:

I think every Dominican already knows that the days of the DR are numbered already. Supposedly, there are many high ranking military personnels of Haitian decent who are claiming that "the island is one indivisible and that Haitians will prevail".

-NALs

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quote above reminds me of one of my favorite Bush quote,

GWBush said:

"Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, 'what is good for them and what is not.'"

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aegap said:

quote above reminds me of one of my favorite Bush quote,

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OK....

One of the most interesting aspects of Haitian migrants, particularly those of upper income status, is with the relative ease and fluency they learn the Spanish language. Even the Dominican version of Spanish they dominate with much ease.

At times, you think you are talking with a Dominican countrymen and later you realize he's a Haitian! Some obviously due to their French/creole background have some phonetic difficulties with some words in Spanish, but a good number of them dominate the language to near perfection.

I won't be surprise if foreigners may be confusing some Haitians for Dominicans because of this.

-NALs

aegap said:

..Chiri had a great peace about this in a blog...but I can't seem to find it.

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Happy to oblige - Government employs Haitians?

Here, read this, it explains the situation very clearly.

All you have to do everytime you read "USA" change for "DR" and everytime you read "Mexico" change for "Haiti".

The overall message is the same in the DR as it is in the US as well.

I would have said in Europe also, but in Europe there is not illegal immigration problem. There the problem are with asylum seekers...

http://usliberals.about.com/od/immigration/a/IllegalImmi.htm

-NALs

Its a very complicated situation regarding the influx of low level jobs overwhelmed by haitians of the lower class. The companies that hire them are the ones making a fortune out of cheap labor besides most haitians have better work ethics than most dominicans. So with the low wages and loyal employee its a win win situation for these companies.

Haitians need to come home and build our side of the island. Some believe that it is an invasion and people are confusing haitians for dominicans because of the way they speak spanish..I guess haitians should have a colombian or cuban accent..hello, they learn spanish in the dominican republic.. The reality is that most are hard working people that are improving the dominican society with their hard working skills. Now what the Haitian government needs to have is a program that will allow these labor workers to reconstruct Haiti as oppose of the DR..

Wow so true

canadian bob said:

Without Haitians to do all the heavy construction/sugarcane cutting etc, the DR would be in deep trouble. There is presently a lot of construction/pipe-laying, etc in the Puerto Plata area, so the Haitians are more visible. They ALL work, from the tots that beg, sell peanut brittle, the women who beg (sometimes with borrowed babies), sell clothing at the fleamarkets and fruit at the beach, sell meals to the Haitian men who are in construction & so on.
Their living conditions are vile....Canadian Bob.

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They work their butts off. From sunrise to sunset too! I sell alot of appliances and lower end furniture to Haitians. It is appalling the poverty in these very poor barrios. I bring a bag of candy and clothes when I know I am going through this area and give the candy to the little children and children's clothes to mothers who recognize our red Toyota pickup truck. It is truly another humbling experience for anyone that thinks they have it bad in life.

DominicanScotty said:

They work their butts off. From sunrise to sunset too! I sell alot of appliances and lower end furniture to Haitians. It is appalling the poverty in these very poor barrios. I bring a bag of candy and clothes when I know I am going through this area and give the candy to the little children and children's clothes to mothers who recognize our red Toyota pickup truck. It is truly another humbling experience for anyone that thinks they have it bad in life.

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While it's tempting to give kids candy, it's better to give them something more useful.

Candy can bring a kid joy in the SHORT RUN, but in the LONG RUN it could be a mouth full of cavities and dental problems.

I don't think those kids need those problems in addition to the one's they have inherited.

-NALs