I've written about Haitians and the Dominican Republic before here and here, but Thursday's New York Times article about the migration of Haitians to the Dominican Republic and the migration of others from one developing nation to another, should be must reading for anyone who cares the slightest about the issue. Had a bad day? It can't be much worse than every day for this man:
But hundreds of Haitian migrants have risked their lives to come here and work the surrounding fields, and they are part of a global trend: migrants who move to poor countries from even poorer ones.
Among them is Anes Moises, 45, a dark-skinned man with flecks of gray hair, who has worked the Dominican banana fields for more than a decade, always illegally. Farm bosses pay him $5 a day and tell him that Haitians stink. Soldiers have called him a dark-skinned “devil” and deported him four times.
Still, with the average income in the Dominican Republic six times as much as in Haiti, Mr. Moises has answered each expulsion by hiring a smuggler to bribe the border guards and guide him back in.
“We are forced to come back here — not because we like it, but because we are poor,” he said. “When we cross the border, we are a little better off. We are able to buy shoes and maybe a chicken.” [my emphasis]
Of course this is not isolated to the island of Hispaniola. Spain has signed repatriation agreements with several countries in Africa in an effort to discourage African migrants from making the dangerous passage across the Straits of Gibraltar or from Senegal or Mauritania to the Canary Islands in flimsy boats. The net effect has been to strand some migrants from countries such as Guinea in countries such as Morocco or Senegal.
There's no easy solution to this, but learning about the issue can only help.
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