Haitian Americans

Orientation

Identification and Location. The Haitian population in the United States consists of persons born in Haiti and persons of Haitian descent. Some Haitians refer to themselves as members of "the Haitian community." Depending on the context, that term may encompass Haitians who have settled in a particular location such as New York or Miami or all Haitian immigrants to the United States. The term diaspora also has become popular among Haitian immigrants, who use it to convey their sense of belonging to a distinct group that lives in the United States but sees Haiti as its home.

Because the large-scale migration of Haitians to the United States was precipitated in part by the civil disorder that accompanied the beginning of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1957, most of the immigrants at first saw themselves as transients and political exiles. This sense of impermanence, as well as long-standing divisions in Haitian society along class, color, and political lines, prevented Haitians from developing collective responses to the problems they faced as immigrants in the United States. As the migration increased in the 1970s, American political leaders and the media began to brand Haitians as undesirables, and the U.S. government refused to recognize the immigrants as political refugees. In the 1980s the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) classified Haitians as a human immunodeficiency virus risk group. Although the CDC later rescinded that label, its action had negative consequences for many Haitian immigrants, who lost their jobs or faced increased difficulty finding work or housing. As a result of the discrimination they faced as Haitians and as black newcomers, many of the immigrants came to share a common and distinct Haitian ethnic identity. As of 2002 Haitians have entered a period of intense reflection on their position, status, and role within U.S. society and their relationship to Haiti. Issues of naturalization, dual citizenship, empowerment, and participation in American political life have become part of their agenda.

Demography. There are no reliable figures on the number of Haitian immigrants and people of Haitian descent in the United States. The 2000 U.S. Census reported an estimate of 657,077 people who claim Haitian ancestry. That total does not count the undocumented immigrants in many households. In 1996 the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated that there were 105,000 undocumented Haitians in the United States. Most researchers of Haitian immigration think these figures considerably underrepresent the size of the Haitian population in the United States, and spokespeople for Haitian media and community organizations generally provide higher estimates. According to the Haitian Television Network, there are 2 million Haitian Americans in North America, of whom 650,000 live in New York and 500,000 live in Florida.

Linguistic Affiliation. Immigrants educated in Haiti have different levels of knowledge of French, but all Haitians speak Kreyol (Creole), which is a distinct language, not a dialect of French. Schooling in Haiti is predominantly in French, but most people are unable to attend school long enough to become literate and attain proficiency in French. Kreyol is the language that developed when slaves integrated linguistic elements and structures from African languages, French, and trading languages used in Africa and the Caribbean. It is a fully developed language for which linguists have developed a standardized system of orthography. However, it is only recently that Kreyol is being taught in Haiti, and so most adult Haitians, even if they are literate in other languages, do not know how to read or write in Kreyol.

In the 1970s a group of exiled Haitian priests launched a campaign to legitimize the use of Kreyol and began to employ it in the celebration of Mass and in other public events in the United States. This created controversy among Haitian immigrants, particularly concerning the adoption of Kreyol as the language to be used in bilingual programs for Haitian students in New York public schools. By the 1990s Kreyol had moved from being the language Haitians used predominantly only among themselves to the language used at most Haitian meeting and public occasions in the United States. The importance of Kreyol is reflected in the recognition by federal and state agencies in areas of dense Haitian settlement such as the New York metropolitan region that Haitian Kreyol is a major immigrant language. About half of first-generation Haitian immigrants can speak English well. Most Haitians learn some English. Many Haitian children raised in the United States prefer to speak English and often refuse to respond to their parents when spoken to in Kreyol or French. Although, in high school or college Haitian students become interested in learning French or Kreyol.

History and Cultural Relations

During the late eighteenth century many free black Haitians came to the United States to participate in the American Revolution. Those revolutionary soldiers included a future leader of the 1804 Haitian revolution, Henry Christophe. Established in 1804 by the only successful slave uprising in history, Haiti was the first black nation in the Western Hemisphere. With the abolition of slavery and the creation of the Haitian state, many slave owners, accompanied by some of their slaves, took refuge in the United States. Haitians continued to arrive in the United States throughout the nineteenth century, settling in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and New York City, where they contributed to the cultural and economic development of those cities. Traces of that immigration are found in traditions, lore, customs, and biographies of some Haitian American or African American families. In the 1920s and 1930s some Haitian intellectuals, artists, and trade unionists were active participants in the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. Until 1932 little was known about the volume of Haitian immigration because the U.S. government kept no records of Haitian immigration. From 1932 to 1950 only 5,544 Haitians entered the United States as immigrants. From 1959 to 1998, 375,938 Haitians entered the United States with permanent resident visas and 1,832,781 arrived with nonimmigrant or tourist visas. Until the 1980s many of the immigrants who arrived with tourist visas were able to regularize their status and become permanent residents and an unknown number of people still over-stay their visas in their search for political and economic security.

Between 1971 and 1981 more then 60,000 Haitians arrived in southern Florida on small wooden sailboats. A large number of men, women, and children drowned while attempting to sail to the United States. Sometimes their bodies washed up on Florida's beaches, but this dramatic evidence of a people fleeing a repressive regime did not alter the U.S. policy of refusing Haitian refugees political asylum, placing them in detention camps, and deporting them. The refugees believed they were rejected because they were black and because the U.S. government supported the Duvalier dictatorship. Haitians were portrayed in the United States as impoverished, illiterate, and diseased and were labeled "boat people." Those negative images ignored the diverse composition of the refugee population and the Haitian communities in the United States and the presence of a middle class.

The U.S. government's treatment of Haitian refugees led to mass demonstrations by Haitians, class action suits by American civil rights advocates, and increasing pressure by the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1980 U.S. public attention focused on Haitian immigration when within a few months 12,500 Haitians and 125,000 Cubans arrived on small boats in southern Florida. As a result, the Carter administration was forced to grant temporary admittance to both Haitian and Cuban refugees by creating a special Cuban-Haitian Entrant Status. The practice of deporting Haitians and denying them refugee status continued under the Reagan and Bush administrations. In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard began to stop Haitian boats at sea and return refugees to Haiti.

The 1990 election of Jean Betrand Aristide to lead the first democratic government in Haitian history helped slow the migration. When a military coup of generals with connections to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew Aristide, Haitians again began to flee to the United States. Most of those individuals were apprehended before they could reach the United States and were returned to Haiti to face the retribution of the military government. In 1994 the INS processed 10,400 applications of persons who filed for refugee status but approved only 18 percent of those applications. The flight of refugees abated when Aristide was restored to his presidential position. However, by the year 2000, Haitians were again risking their lives by boarding small wooden boats to flee their homeland. This time they fled the political violence of forces maneuvering for power, and the growth of despair and crime that has accompanied economic globalization in Haiti.

The Haitian migrations of the 1950s and 1960s included members of the upper class as well as entrepreneurs, professionals, and skilled workers. Among those who arrived during that period was a relatively large contingent of affluent mulatto families as well as prominent members of the political class. The majority of those immigrants were urbanites, with most coming from Port-au-Prince, the capital. As political and economic conditions continued to deteriorate in Haiti from the 1960s to the 1990s, the social base of the migration broadened. First came Haitians who had been born in rural villages or in towns but had lived in Port-au-Prince, followed by people coming directly from rural areas. Many in the latter group had fewer skills and less education and money than the first arrivals.

Settlements

The New York City metropolitan area was the first region of dense Haitian settlement, and in 1993 more than one-third of newly arrived Haitian immigrants continued to settle there. Another third of the newly arrived immigrants settled in Miami or other cities and towns in southern Florida. Boston, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Orlando, Florida; and Washington, DC, also have sizable Haitian settlements. However, Haitian immigrants have been willing to settle wherever they can find employment, including cities in California and Illinois. Almost all Haitian settlements are in urban area, although in the 1980s many Haitian immigrants were migrant farm workers. Haitians also settled in areas such as Belle Glade, Florida, and worked in agricultural areas along the East Coast.

Economy

Subsistence. Haitians tend to enter the work force as low-paid wage earners who work long hours, often without benefits. Haitians as a group have a high level of employment. Women are employed almost as frequently as men. In 1990, 34 percent of the Haitian American population worked in service occupations, 21 percent as factory operatives, 21 percent as clerical or technical workers, 9 percent as professionals, 5 percent as managers, and 3 percent as farm workers. In New York Haitians work in industries such as health care, hotels, office cleaning, and transport services. Women in particular work in the home health care industry. Haitians participate actively in trade union activities in the hospital and hotel industries. The Haitian immigrant population is more highly educated than is the Haitian population as a whole.

Because of Haiti's weak economy, further impoverished by political corruption and repression, many doctors, lawyers, engineers, and teachers are unable to find employment or obtain a decent standard of living in Haiti and are forced to migrate. During their first years of settlement in the United States many of these professionals experience downward mobility, impeded by linguistic and racial barriers. However, most Haitian immigrants with a professional education eventually are able to join the American middle class. Beginning in the 1980s, when it became more difficult for foreign-trained medical personnel to obtain U.S. certification, Haitian doctors and nurses faced increased barriers to obtaining credentials.

Education continues to be a goal of Haitians after they migrate, and adults often attend school while working full-time. The 1990 U.S. Census reported that 41 percent of Haitian immigrants have less than a high school education, 48 percent have at least a high school education, and 11 percent have a college degree. Women are about as likely as men to obtain a high school or college education. Among Haitians with a professional degree, 63 percent are men. The second generation includes a sector of young professionals who earn high incomes as lawyers, computer specialists, accountants, and financial analysts. Other members of this generation drop out, discouraged by the lack of resources and opportunities provided by inner city schools

Individual income is low, averaging $11,894 in 1989, with 21 percent of families earning an income below the poverty line. However, the presence in households of several adult wage earners often allows households to pool resources; the mean household income in 1989 was $32,161.

Haitian immigrants are among the growing number of immigrants in the United States who live transnational lives. They have settled permanently in the United States yet maintain strong ties to Haiti, which they still call "home." Haitian people of all class backgrounds live their lives across national borders, connected to family, friends, business associates, and political movements in Haiti. Most Haitians do not arrive in family groups but through chain migration. The immigration of one member of a family household is made possible through a pooling of the resource of those left behind. The immigrant then uses his or her wages to sustain family members still in Haiti and provide money for the migration of other members of the family. Until changes in the immigration law in the 1980s women often migrated first because they could obtain permanent resident status by working as domestics. Remittances from Haitian immigrants sustain households throughout Haiti. As an unemployed man in Haiti put it, "When someone is in the United States, he is the wealth of people here."

Commercial Activities. Neighborhoods of dense Haitian settlement in Brooklyn and Miami provide a base for small businesses, including record stores, travel agencies, restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and barber and beauty shops. Haitian doctors and dentists provide services for a Haitian clientele. The reduction in the number of manufacturing jobs, racial discrimination, and the difficulties they face in obtaining legal documentation force many immigrants to begin small informal businesses. Vans operated by male drivers offer regular and inexpensive transportation services in areas with large concentrations of immigrants. Women cater parties, weddings, and other social events, and their living rooms are transformed into day care centers. People sell goods imported from Haiti from their homes; and earn money from dressmaking, tailoring, and repairing automobiles; and obtain commissions by transporting cash to Haiti. Haitian businesses that focus on financial services and the flow of money, cargo, and travelers across international borders have been growing in size and significance. The services provided include insurance, accounting, and the transfer of remittances and investments to Haiti. The largest businesses are cash transfer firms that send money and packages to Haiti as part of the ongoing pattern of maintaining transnational connections. By 1990 remittances sent through money transfer businesses totaled $125 million, which constituted about 30 percent of Haitian state revenue.

Division of Labor. An equal number of Haitian women and men have migrated to the United States. The degree to which Haitian women feel that migration has improved their lives depends on a number of factors, including their class background in Haiti and whether they have been able to obtain an education or employment security in the United States. Most adult women work, and women find that they virtually have two full-time jobs since they also are responsible for housework and childcare. Haitian men have been slow to contribute to the housework, although younger men do some cleaning and child rearing. Women often find their lives much more difficult in the United States because many had servants in Haiti. Some of the burden is relieved by having grandparents or other women in an extended family share the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. In Haiti, there are two forms of cohabitation, legal marriage and a common law for a partnership called plasaj. There are many historical explanations on the origin of plasaj. Some associate it with a cultural legacy from Africa, others with slavery. Plasaj may also designate a relationship of one man with many women. This is particularly found among the peasantry. In general, a rich peasant may have many mistresses who bear his children. Although historically this latter has always been an arrangement between a man from the upper social classes and poorer women, today in Haiti even poorer men may have relationships with women in several different households. There are also forms of union that do not entail coresidence but include sexual relations, produce children, and require the father to contribute some form of economic support.

In the United States, two-thirds of Haitian adults marry, and marriage is an important and socially prestigious relationship for people of all classes. Formal marriage is less common among poorer people, who favor common-law marriages. Marriage often is seen as a project of mutual interest between a man and a woman rather than a source of friendship. Couples are often divided over long periods when one spouse is able to migrate and uses the opportunity to support family back in Haiti.

Many changes occur in family patterns with immigration to the United States, particularly among members of the middle class. Increasingly, these people tend to see husbands and wives as companions, yet there is also an increased rate of divorce. Most Haitian immigrants marry other Haitians, although there has been some intermarriage with other Caribbeans, African Americans, and Euro Americans.

Domestic Unit. Households often include members of an extended family, including siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins of the husband and wife. Women rarely live alone with children. Extended kin beyond the household are important in the daily life of immigrant families. Kinship networks provide the primary support for Haitian immigrants when they resettle in the United States. Kin provide housing for new arrivals, assistance in finding housing and employment, and advice on American culture. After a newcomer is settled, an extended network of kin continues to provide companionship, assistance with childcare, and support in times of illness, job loss, or the death of a family member. Weekends often are spent at family gatherings. Husbands and wives often have their own kinship networks to which they look for support.

Socialization. In poorer families children sometimes are sent back to Haiti to be raised by grandparents or kin so that their parents can work full-time or hold more than one job. These separations are often painful for the parents and children but are seen as necessary for the survival of all the members of the family. Children usually are brought to the United States when they are teenagers so that they can learn English, attend an American high school, and obtain work. However, efforts are made to keep children within a Haitian family network because U.S. culture is seen as failing to teach children manners and respect for kin, elders, and teachers. Haitian children born or raised in the United States and living in inner-city neighborhoods interact most often with African American children and tend to adopt the cultural patterns of their peers, especially clothing and hairstyles. When they become young adults, second-generation Haitians often begin to use immigrant networks and family ties and may embrace some form of Haitian identity.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Haitian immigrants have formed a multiplicity of organizations. Participation in organized activities often helps them reestablish a network beyond family ties and provides social support. Haitian organizations also are an arena in which social status can be obtained or validated both in the United States and in Haiti. Organizations tend to be based in a single locality in which Haitians have settled rather than being regional or national. However, many organizations in the United States carry out activities in Haiti. Those organizations include soccer clubs and leagues; Masonic temples; associations of doctors, nurses, and other professionals; associations of artists, including dance troupes and theatrical groups; political organizations; Protestant churches; community organizations; and hometown associations. Many community organizations were established with the assistance of U.S. philanthropic organizations or churches and have been dependent on financial assistance from those sources. The services they have provided to assist newcomers include literacy classes, English classes, and counseling on immigrants' rights. In contrast, hometown associations, which are often called "regional associations," unite people from the same village, town, or city in Haiti to organize activities to assist people "back home." Funds are raised for projects that include clinics, electrification, cemetery reconstruction, and literacy assistance.

Political Organization. In 1991 the Aristide government formally recognized the familial, economic, religious, social, and political ties between Haitians in the United States and people in Haiti. The territory of the Haitian state is divided into nine geographic divisions called departments. Haitians in the United States were designated part of "the Tenth Department." By implication, the diaspora became part of the Haitian state. The designation of the Tenth Department gave public recognition to the fact that Haitian immigrants have participated in political processes that affect Haiti through lobbying, demonstrating, and organizing in the United States. Increasing numbers of Haitians have decided to become U.S. citizens. In the 1990s 102,304 people born in Haiti became naturalized citizens of the United States.

There has been increasing participation in the U.S. political process. South Florida is leading that trend with the election of increasing numbers of Haitian political leaders, including mayors. Both Miami and Rockland County in New York have elected a Haitian judge, and Massachusetts has elected a Haitian state representative.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Most Haitian immigrants self-identify as Catholics. Catholic parishes in areas of significant Haitian settlement, such as New York, New Jersey, Miami, and Chicago, have recruited Haitian priests. Haitian drummers and Haitian music often accompany the celebration of Mass in Kreyol. Haitian immigrants have formed lay organizations to support the Church and have looked to Catholic agencies such as Catholic Charities to provide assistance in settlement. In Haiti many more women attend Mass on a regular basis, but in the United States men have begun to participate regularly in church services. Haitian Catholic priests emerged as important community leaders in efforts to establish a democratic government in Haiti and contributed to the building of transnational political movements and efforts to raise money for literacy campaigns in Haiti. Catholic youth groups have become an important component of community life and provide support for young people who want to express a Haitian identity within an American context.

A growing minority of Haitians both in Haiti and among immigrants belong to Protestant congregations that include Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Methodists, and the Church of God (Eglise de Dieu). At first Haitians joined multiethnic congregations, but in many instances they were assisted by Protestant church organizations in establishing separate Haitian churches headed by Haitian ministers. Some of these congregations meet in established church buildings; others use storefronts. Haitian forms of healing using Protestant prayers and the assistance of bon anj (good souls) are practiced by some Haitian Protestants. Protestant churches have assisted in immigrant settlement, providing health fairs, employment assistance, and English classes. Some congregations are linked to churches in Haiti and send money for community health projects and schools there. In general these congregations have kept their distance from Haitian politics.

Ceremonies. The set of religious beliefs that Haitians call "serving the spirits," scholars refer to as Vodun or Vodou, and the U.S. media label voodoo is practiced in the United States. Services are held in the home of the priest or priestess and often last through the night. In New York the basement of a private house often is converted to a place of worship. Singing is accompanied by the use of three drums. The spirits speak through the initiates, who go into a trance and provide guidance, comfort, and healing for immigrants who must deal with the difficulties of adjusting to a new life. Women and men of all generations as well as children participate. Because their practice of serving the spirits has been misunderstood and distorted by the media, most Haitians are reluctant to talk about their knowledge of Vodou. Children learn not to speak about their experiences in public. Vodou also fosters transnational connections. Some believers return to Haiti for initiation or to fulfill responsibilities to the spirits. In public Vodou priests tend to be more prominent than priestesses, while in private women may predominate.

Arts. Haitian painting has achieved an international reputation, and Haitian artists who have settled in the United States have continued this tradition. Because Haiti is linked in the public mind with a "naive" style of brightly colored paintings depicting the Haitian countryside and vodou celebrations, artists who wish to pursue other styles or work in other media have had difficulty finding a place for their productions. Ritual objects such as embroidered and sequincovered flags depicting spirits have been recognized as an art form and displayed in American museums.

Since the beginning of large-scale migration bands from Haiti have toured in the United States, and recordings of their music are available in Haitian stores. The Haitian music industry has become transnational so that recording for audiocassettes or videos may be done in Haiti while production takes place in the United States. Older forms of dance music, such as minijazz and compas, with lyrics focused on male-female relationships, are being replaced by a "roots movement" in Haiti and among Haitian musicians in the United States. This music incorporates Vodou rhythms and melodies into an exuberant style that combines an awareness of Haitian suffering with the joy of resistance. Some of the newer bands include Haitians born in the United States. This newer music has been played on world beat radio programs and in urban dance clubs. Rara music, traditionally a peasant Vodun style in which bands take to the streets during Lent, has begun to be performed in parks in New York during the summer. Haitian immigrants with a middle-class background who know little about peasant culture become acquainted with their cultural heritage through the performance of "roots movement" music, including the transformed rara.

For the original article on Haitians, see Volume 1, North America.

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NINA GLICK SCHILLER AND CAROLLE CHARLES