The Haitian-Dominican Contradiction: Migration and Development in the Dominican Republic by Hillary Geneau Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia July 2017 © Copyright by Hillary Geneau, 2017 DEDICATION PAGE This thesis is dedicated to the people who let me into their communities and homes in the Dominican Republic. I hope this thesis does their stories justice. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED ............................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1 This Thesis ..............................................................................................................5 Migration .................................................................................................................7 Development ........................................................................................................ 10 Development and Migration .......................................................................... 11 Outline .................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ......................... 17 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 17 Historical Overview of the Dominican People and Migration ......... 17 Emigration identity. ..................................................................................................19 History with Haiti .......................................................................................................20 Perceptions of Migration ................................................................................ 24 Role of the nation. .....................................................................................................27 Multiculturalism. .........................................................................................................29 Migration Definitions ........................................................................................ 30 The citizenship conundrum. ...................................................................................34 Debates on Economic Effects ........................................................................ 36 South-South migration effects. ............................................................................39 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 39 CHAPTER 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................ 41 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 41 Migration and North and South ................................................................... 41 Relative deprivation theory. ..................................................................................43 iii Social Theory ....................................................................................................... 44 Realistic group conflict theory and social identity theory. .........................46 Political Economy ............................................................................................... 47 Host country perspective. .......................................................................................49 Domestic citizens. ......................................................................................................50 The Minority Group. ..................................................................................................53 Difference between Developed and Developing Countries........................54 Problems with Political Economy ................................................................ 56 Other Theories .................................................................................................... 56 Classical Economic Analysis. .................................................................................56 Global power and transnational perspectives. .............................................58 Political Economy and the Connection to this Research Project 59 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 59 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS ...................................................................... 61 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 61 Methods ................................................................................................................. 61 Participants. .................................................................................................................62 Table of participants. ................................................................................................62 Logistical and Methodological challenges/obstacles. ...................................63 Time of the study. .....................................................................................................64 Description of results ....................................................................................... 65 What are your perceptions of migration in general? ...................................65 Do you have family overseas? ..............................................................................70 What are your interactions with people of Haitian descent? ....................71 What is the biggest difficulty of life here or obstacle to development? 72 Analysis .................................................................................................................. 73 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 77 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 79 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 79 Analysis of Results and Conclusions ......................................................... 82 Theoretical Conclusions .................................................................................. 84 iv Moving Forward .................................................................................................. 85 Dominican Government and Future of the PNRE ..........................................85 The Media. ....................................................................................................................86 Migration Practices Worldwide. .............................................................................87 Development. ..............................................................................................................89 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 91 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 93 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW GUIDE ........................................................................... 106 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Table of participants…………………………………………………………61 vi ABSTRACT This thesis explores the connection between migration and development in the Dominican Republic, specifically in regards to people of Haitian descent there. To examine the connection, perceptions held by Dominican citizens were researched. The historical context of the island and the citizenship issue are imperative to understand the situation of people of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, since this represents a unique situation involving movement from one developing country to another. Social theories were used to examine the perceptions of this movement held by Dominicans. These were used to analyze how Dominicans create their perceptions of others, and how these perceptions may possibly be changed. A political economy framework is used to review the connection between perceptions of migration and perceptions of development. This broad framework allows political and economic aspects of the situation to be considered in tandem. It can also allow for comparisons between different incidences of migration, such as to understand similarities and differences between movement from developing countries to developed countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Dominicans to garner these perceptions, in both the rural and urban setting. The conclusions based on the research conducted for this thesis, contrary to most other research in the field, is that Dominicans view migration in the Dominican Republic positively and do not see a conflict between immigration and development of their country. vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED ESS European Social Survey GCIM Global Commission on International Migration GFMD Global Forum for Migration and Development GNI Gross National