The Island of Hispaniola: Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Article: New York Times, Dominican Republic Grows Weary of Haitian Refugees, Randal C. Archibald

The title of the article says it all.  After the devastating earthquake hit Haiti in January, 2010, Dominicans rushed to help their island neighbors.  There was also an influx of refugees from Haiti (one of the poorest countries in the world) to the DR (a poor but upward-trending country).  Now, the DR is losing patience with the refugees and is deporting many, including through a program which offers Haitians $50 each to return to their home country.  This program has had many takers due to the desperate condition in which many Haitian refugees find themselves.

Although Haiti and the Dominican Republic both are third-world countries with populations around ten million, and they share the same island, the contrast between them is stark.  According the the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html), the DR has a GDP of around $87 billion, or $8,900 per capita.  Haiti's GDP is $11.5 billion, or $1,200 per capita.  In Haiti, 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, and two-thirds of the workforce do not have formal jobs.

The reason for the disparity?  This is complicated, but in his book "Collapse", Jared Diamond points to Haiti as an example of a country that has ruined itself through deforestation and ensuing desertification, largely due to a history of ill-considered agricultural practices.  The Dominican Republic has historically been a better steward of its natural resources, especially its forests, which is at least partly responsible for its higher rainfall and more productive agriculture.  Diamond gives some of the responsibility for this to the much hated brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ran the DR from 1930 to 1961.  Apparently, though he killed and tortured thousands, he had a soft spot for trees, forests and nature.

I visited the Dominican Republic in 2006, a few years before the Haitian earthquake.  It was a poor country, but even then, many Haitians had come across the border to do whatever work they could find, as they have throughout modern history.  During an unplanned detour through a sugar cane plantation, we saw many Haitian workers chopping cane, and loading it into railroad cars.  I asked the guide if he thought the DR and Haiti could ever unite as a single country, since they shared a single island.  He told me no, because there were too many cultural differences.  When I pressed him, he said that Dominicans were proud of their Spanish Catholic roots, and would never be comfortable with the "African" religious practices of the Haitians.

A sad situation, no matter how you look at it.