Abstract

The topic I have selected will focus on a comparative analysis of immigration policies in the United States and the Dominican Republic. The research will examine how these policies impact the lives of racialized migrants and asylum seekers in both the United States and the Dominican Republic. The mimicking and mirroring of restrictionist U.S. immigration policies can be seen in the Dominican Republic.  Haitian migrants and asylum seekers’ never-ending search for “home” or “paraiso” confines racialized migrants to a disconsolate life enmeshed within an indra’s net of inescapable “isms”.

The inescapable “isms” began with expansionism, colonialism and have evolved into anti-Haitianism, racism, and restrictionism. The research presented will demonstrate how U.S immigration policies have influenced the Dominican Republic’s immigration policies.

This research will demonstrate the intersectionality of race and immigration and its impact on the lives of racialized migrants. The research will illustrate evidence of how growing anti-immigrant sentiment has led to discrimination and dehumanizing conditions.

The research will compare the xenophobic rhetoric propagated and institutionalized in both the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. Xenophobia fuels discrimination, violence, bigotry, prejudice and political polarization targeting Haitians in both the Dominican Republic and the United States.

The research will explore immigration policies designed to stem the flow of migrants and strategic plans to prevent or deter migrants from crossing the borders. Furthermore, a comparison of policy measures to prevent the arrival of refugees, migrants and the policing of new arrivals will be presented.

The research presented will clearly demonstrate how the Dominican Republic’s restrictionist immigration policies have contributed to the rise in anti-Haitianism, vulnerability, discrimination and racism under the institutional effort to preserve national identity or Dominicazation.  

Lastly, I will address how the dismantling of colonialism and expansionism can work towards the deconstruction of systems of oppression by examining contemporary immigration policies. Examining the immigration policies and their effects on racialized migrants and asylum seekers will give rise to the possibility of implementing more equitable immigration policies.