Haitians : Migration and Diaspora

Studies the migration of Haitian people during the latter part of the twentieth century, from their rural beginnings to their lives in the U.S., a human movement ending in one of two urban locations, Haitis capital or the U.S.

Atlantic Seaboard.. Haitian boat people have been in the news since the early 1980s, and are part of a much longer migration history between the worlds first black republic and the United States.

The vast majority of Haitians are desperately poor rural residents; Haitian Americans, on the other hand, are concentrated along the urbanized Atlantic Seaboard and are not ensnared in poverty.

Haitians: Migration and Diaspora uses U.S. and Haitian interview data, coupled with a broader analysis of Haitian rural conditions and the effects of foreign and domestic policy on their movement, to underscore the need for a comprehensive rural strategy for economic development in Haiti.

Such a strategy, Catanese argues, is vital for improving the lives of Haitians and removing the impulse for leaving their preferred rural domiciles. }Haitian boat people have been in the news since the early 1980s, and are part of a much longer migration history between the worlds first black republic and the United States.

The vast majority of Haitians are desperately poor rural residents; Haitian Americans, on the other hand, are concentrated along the urbanized Atlantic Seaboard and are not ensnared in poverty.

Haitians: Migration and Diaspora uses U.S. and Haitian interview data, coupled with a broader analysis of Haitian rural conditions and the effects of foreign and domestic policy on their movement, to underscore the need for a comprehensive rural strategy for economic development in Haiti.

Such a strategy, Catanese argues, is vital for improving the lives of Haitians and removing the impulse for leaving their preferred rural domiciles.

The book begins in the early 1980s, after almost twenty years of Duvalierism, when rural Haitians were beset by several important migration and refugee issues: pig extermination and repopulation, deforestation and reforestation, and the 1990s embargo by the US and its allies. After examining how Haitians responded to and were affected by these centrally important issues, the author proposes an array of ways to make rural Haiti livable for its people.

Finally, the issue of Haitian Americans is addressed. }