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rfmcdonaldVia Reuters, Joseph Guyler Delva's article "Haitian food crisis sending refugees to the sea".
The only thing surprising about all this is that this sort of mass emigration hasn't happened on this scale earlier. Leaving aside entirely Haiti's long history of catastrophic political misrule, the Haitian economy has never done well. Under the French, Haiti's economy was dominated by sugar cane plantations which depended on the cruel exploitation of slaves. After independence, Haiti quickly became divided between a relatively advantaged urban population and a rural peasantry. The second half of the 20th century saw Haiti stagnate, with successive enclaved industries (the assembly plants of the 1970s and 1980s, the tourism boom aborted after AIDS appeared) failing to boost the overall economy while incompetent regimes managed to promote overall economic decline. As Manuel Orozco's 2006 paper "Understanding the remittance economy in Haiti" (PDF format) points out, this sad economic history is responsible for the fact that something like a billion dollars American--more than one-quarter the size of Haiti's GDP--are transferred to Haitians by immigrants, the total value of these remittances growing rapidly.
I've written in the past about Canada's disregard for Iraqi refugees. The problems of Haitian migrants equally deserve exploration. Haitians have little lilelihood of a prosperous life in Haiti, and Haiti itself doesn't seem to have very many long-term economic prospects apart from a superabundance of inexpensive labour. Sharply limiting the influx of Haitian workers to North American and other, more prosperous, economies and labour markets might protect the income of citizens who find themselves at the end of the labour market, but with certainty it also represents a catastrophe for Haitians, who if nothing else would benefit from the expanded income that a greatly enlarged flow of workers would bring. Who knows? Perhaps returning migrants might bring back the sorts of skills that could jump-start the Haitian economy.
It goes almost without saying that this won't happen. Québec's inclined to limit the inflow of unskilled immigrants, the United States is building its defensive perimeter around its southern border, and raising the topic Sarkozy's France might at best be taken as a comedy routine. It also goes without saying that Haitians are going to continue to risk death and terrible suffering for a chance at a better life. Paul Farmer once wrote that Haiti belonged to an exploitative West Atlantic system of trade and migration. It's worrisome that Haiti seems to be dropping entirely out of that system into something like complete isolation.
Acute hunger and the rising cost of living could send a new wave of boat people from Haiti, where rising food prices set off deadly riots two weeks ago and drove the prime minister from office, officials and analysts say.
In the small town of Montrouis, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Port-au-Prince, desperate Haitians say they will seize the first opportunity to take a boat toward the U.S. coast to escape the misery that plagues Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
"I will leave with the next boat going to Miami because I can no longer resist this hunger," Marcel Jonassaint, 34, told Reuters on Tuesday as he sat barefoot near the dock in Montrouis, throwing a handful of small rocks into the ocean.
"I have four children and I don't have a job and everything is expensive, even for those who are working," Jonassaint said. "So what do you want me to do?"
Montrouis is a coastal village, overlooking the island of La Gonave, reputed as a key launching point for migrant boats.
"I left earlier this year. Our boat was intercepted in the high seas, but I will try again," said 29-year-old Rachel Chavanne. "I know some people, like a cousin of mine, who had a successful trip there.
"My turn will also come one day," she said in her blue dress, with a smile on her face.
[. . .]
The U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted 972 Haitian migrants at sea since Oct. 1, compared with 376 during the same period last year. But the numbers typically fluctuate and it's impossible to link any spike in the numbers to any one event such as the recent food riots, Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena said.
"It peaks at certain points and there's months on end when we get no Haitian vessels at all," he said.
Pierre said her office is doing its best to persuade suffering Haitians to stay home, but "they believe the only alternative left for them is to leave."
Migration office employees have been sent to poor, seaside neighborhoods to warn people how risky it is to take to the sea in rustic vessels, but they reply by giving examples of friends and relatives they knew made it to Miami.
"We even show them pictures of sharks eating people, but they would tell us they know many others who reached U.S soil and who are now sending money to relatives left in Haiti," said Pierre.
The only thing surprising about all this is that this sort of mass emigration hasn't happened on this scale earlier. Leaving aside entirely Haiti's long history of catastrophic political misrule, the Haitian economy has never done well. Under the French, Haiti's economy was dominated by sugar cane plantations which depended on the cruel exploitation of slaves. After independence, Haiti quickly became divided between a relatively advantaged urban population and a rural peasantry. The second half of the 20th century saw Haiti stagnate, with successive enclaved industries (the assembly plants of the 1970s and 1980s, the tourism boom aborted after AIDS appeared) failing to boost the overall economy while incompetent regimes managed to promote overall economic decline. As Manuel Orozco's 2006 paper "Understanding the remittance economy in Haiti" (PDF format) points out, this sad economic history is responsible for the fact that something like a billion dollars American--more than one-quarter the size of Haiti's GDP--are transferred to Haitians by immigrants, the total value of these remittances growing rapidly.
I've written in the past about Canada's disregard for Iraqi refugees. The problems of Haitian migrants equally deserve exploration. Haitians have little lilelihood of a prosperous life in Haiti, and Haiti itself doesn't seem to have very many long-term economic prospects apart from a superabundance of inexpensive labour. Sharply limiting the influx of Haitian workers to North American and other, more prosperous, economies and labour markets might protect the income of citizens who find themselves at the end of the labour market, but with certainty it also represents a catastrophe for Haitians, who if nothing else would benefit from the expanded income that a greatly enlarged flow of workers would bring. Who knows? Perhaps returning migrants might bring back the sorts of skills that could jump-start the Haitian economy.
It goes almost without saying that this won't happen. Québec's inclined to limit the inflow of unskilled immigrants, the United States is building its defensive perimeter around its southern border, and raising the topic Sarkozy's France might at best be taken as a comedy routine. It also goes without saying that Haitians are going to continue to risk death and terrible suffering for a chance at a better life. Paul Farmer once wrote that Haiti belonged to an exploitative West Atlantic system of trade and migration. It's worrisome that Haiti seems to be dropping entirely out of that system into something like complete isolation.
