The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School LIVELIHOODS IN THE BALANCE: HAITIANS, HAITIAN-DOMINICANS AND PRECARIOUS WORK IN RURAL DOMINICAN REPUBLIC A Thesis in Rural Sociology by Effie Smith © 2020 Effie Smith Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 2020 ii The thesis of Effie Smith was reviewed and approved by the following: Kathleen Sexsmith Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology Thesis Advisor Leif Jensen Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology Rebecca Tarlau Assistant Professor of Education and Labor & Employment Relations Kathryn J. Brasier Professor of Rural Sociology Director of Graduate Studies for Rural Sociology iii ABSTRACT Haitian immigrants and their Dominican-born descendants (Haitian-Dominicans) occupy some of the lowest-paying, most precarious rungs of work in the Dominican Republic. Coupled with severe ethno-racial and social discrimination and political barriers to attaining regularized legal status and legal rights, Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans experience an overarching sense of precarity which keeps them in these insecure working situations. Using an intersectional analysis of precarious work, this thesis examines how gender, ethnicity and race, and legal status and precarious employment interact with and cocreate one another creating a general sense of precarity for Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in the Dominican Republic. It shows how Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans living in rural communities called bateyes adapt to precarious circumstances and patch together sources of employment and income to create a livelihood. Haitian migrant workers historically arrived in the Dominican Republic as guest workers on Dominican sugarcane plantations and became the principal agricultural labor force in the country over the course of the 20th century. A growth of income opportunities for Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in urban areas in the Dominican Republic since the privatization of the sugar industry in 1998 has led to a shift in migration patterns from rural areas to urban centers (Silié et al, 2002; Landry, 2013). However, despite the lack of high-paying, secure jobs in rural bateyes, many residents remain. Much of the literature on Haitian and Haitian-Dominican populations since this time has focused on the livelihoods of urban-dwelling residents. This thesis helps to fill this gap in research by identifying the livelihood opportunities still available for rural batey residents and further examines how livelihood opportunities for Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in rural areas are shaped by the intersection of gender, ethnicity and race, and legal status. This thesis finds that there is a high level of informality in the iv kinds of income-earning activities in which batey residents engage and that even seemingly stable jobs are often fraught with insecurity. It further shows how the effects of precarious work have emotional implications that impact not just workers, but also their family members, creating a kind of second-hand precarity. Within these livelihood trends, Haitian migrants and women are often relegated to low-waged, irregular and informal forms of work within the batey due to ethnic discrimination, fears of deportation, and traditional conceptions of men’s and women’s labor roles. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates how aspects of individual identity interact and complicate experiences of precarity, by influencing not only the kind of work one attains, but also if and how they attain it, and, furthermore, how they adapt to insecure circumstances. It proposes a new framework of precarious livelihoods to examine how workers peddle together multiple sources of income in order to make ends meet while navigating precarious living situations. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................................vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................viii CHAPTER 1: Introduction...........................................................................................................1 1. Chapter Overview…............................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2: Background...........................................................................................................7 1. Overview….........................................................................................................................7 2. Haiti and the Dominican Republic: An antagonistic history……………………………...7 Changing tides: The rise of the Dominican sugar industry Foreign labor on Dominican sugar plantations Privatization of the sugar cane industry and its effects 3. Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in the Dominican Republic today……………………18 Work for Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans Social discrimination towards Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans Institutionalized discrimination: The struggle to obtain and maintain legal status Sense of belonging: Haitian integration into Dominican society 4. Summary…........................................................................................................................28 CHAPTER 3: Literature Review...............................................................................................30 1. Overview...........................................................................................................................30 2. Precarious work: An overview..........................................................................................30 Competing terminology for precarious work The rise of precarious work Historical roots of precarious work 3. Experiences of precarious work........................................................................................37 Intersectional experiences of precarious work Racial differentiation in precarious work Gender differentiation in precarious work Migrant labor and precarious work 4. Sector specific experiences of precarious work................................................................53 Day labor Domestic work 5. Summary...........................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 4: Methodology........................................................................................................59 1. Research design................................................................................................................59 2. Study site............................................................................................................................60 3. Research methods..............................................................................................................62 4. Data analysis......................................................................................................................68 5. Researcher reflexivity........................................................................................................69 vi CHAPTER 5: Results…..............................................................................................................83 1. Foreword…........................................................................................................................83 2. Overview…........................................................................................................................84 3. “There’s no work here”: Current employment among batey residents..............................85 4. Chache lavi: Barriers to secure employment ..................................................................119 5. Precarity of place: Worries beyond the workplace..........................................................134 6. Summary .........................................................................................................................143 CHAPTER 6: Discussion and Conclusion...............................................................................145 1. Overview..........................................................................................................................145 2. The social context of Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in the Dominican Republic….146 3. Intersectional trends in in employment opportunities among batey residents ...............148 4. Adapting to precarity.......................................................................................................159 5. Summary of findings.......................................................................................................161 Theoretical Contributions 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................167 REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................171 APPENDICES Appendix A. Stage Two (Focused) Coding: Initial Themes Index…………………185 Appendix B. Semi-structured Interview Instrument: Batey La Luisa (English).....186 vii LIST OF TABLES Figure 1. Geographic Location of Monte Plata Province..............................................................61 Figure 2. Layout of Batey La Luisa…...........................................................................................62 Figure