Narrative

The major themes of this compendium are restrictionism immigration policies, racialized discrimination by the state, xenophobia in immigration and the dehumanization of Haitians and other visible racialized migrants.

At the start of the summer of 2023, I began a journey that would help define and unite my personal and professional purpose. From the first course that I took, which was JHR 505: Migration, Asylum & Refugees, I entered a world of academic discourse that enlarged my understanding of the polycrises refugees, migrants and immigrants face in securing their inalienable rights. The rigorous course content and assignments proved to be fuel for my soul.

 As an African American female, I recognize my connection with the social, political, economic and cultural issues connected to immigration. The enslavement of my ancestors, the question of belonging, and the precarity some of us are forced to navigate have directly motivated me as a humanitarian.

This coursework has aligned with the missionary work I’ve done in Kenya, South Africa, Haiti and currently doing in the Dominican Republic. As an expatriate in the Dominican Republic for the past 10 years, I have witnessed the interplay between the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment, the accelerating sociopolitical collapse in Haiti, and the dehumanizing conditions Haitians living in Haiti and the Dominican Republic now suffer under because of these interwoven crises and the impact of the Dominican government’s adoption of restrictionist immigration policies on the lives of racialized migrants and asylum seekers.

In JHR 505, I read Matthew J. Gibney’s “A Thousand Little Guantanamo’s: Western States and Measures to Prevent The Arrival of Refugees”, and I was exposed to research documenting the experiences and perspectives of refugees who had been forced out from their home countries and viewed as interlopers in the countries they emigrated to. A growing number of countries have started to implement immigration policies that make it difficult for asylum seekers to live humanely. The question around belonging is essential to understanding the intersectionality of race and immigration restrictionism. Migrants face harsher policies, denial of the right to work and ultimately deportation. JHR 505 also covered the theoretical literature of Jason DeLeon’s “The Land of Open Graves” (2015), which explored undocumented migration and the rising number of migrant deaths despite deterrence measures. Being able to evaluate the effectiveness of immigration policies promoting the prevention and reduction of illegal migration through the principle of deterrence gave me an opportunity to study deterrence measures, and the increasing militarization of the border area between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I am particularly interested in the humanitarian crisis that Latin American countries and Caribbean countries face in regulating and policing the dangerous trek through migration pathways such as the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama, and other perilous pathways leading into America and the Dominican Republic.

The Undocumented Migration Exhibition Project by DeLeon made me acutely aware of the border deaths and suffering that the public does not hear about. The exhibit focused on border crossing between U.S and Mexico. The exhibit made me want to highlight the vulnerability, dehumanizing conditions and violence racialized migrants and asylum seekers face. In 2023, an escalation of violence in Haiti led to increased security measures. Reported border tensions were growing between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  

 Throughout the Social Justice Human Rights Program, the courses have addressed the global humanitarian crisis migrants and asylum seekers face. I am also interested in the challenges Haitians face entering the United States and the Dominican Republic.

JHR 503: Gender Violence & Human Trafficking focused on the global market of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation involving women and children. The course’s selected research literature examined international law and the prevalence of culturally enforced practices like child labor and socioeconomic risk factors that leave women and children vulnerable to sexual trafficking. From this research I was able to critically analyze Smucker’s theoretical framework involving kinship and culture surrounding Haitian Restavek children (child domestic servants).

The Social Justice& Human Rights program has provided me an opportunity to academically explore the historical roots of global racism, nativism and the intersectionality of race and immigration. It has been extremely interesting to examine current contemporary immigration policies in the United States and see the mirroring of those policies in the Dominican Republic. The theoretical frameworks presented in the courses have been instrumental in my becoming a critical thinker and better equipped to serve as an advocate for human rights and missionary in the Dominican Republic.

Contemporary immigration issues continue to raise concern over resources, border control, political polarization and the need for immigration reform. The interplay of anti-immigration rhetoric and negative immigration attitudes is disturbing.

My positionality sees the ideology of Dominicanization as an intent to erase or eliminate the Haitian presence to be a violation of human rights. As an expatriate in the Dominican Republic, I have witnessed Haitians being harassed, routinely rounded up by the police, and ultimately detained. Police would routinely board public buses which transported Haitian workers to the resorts for work to demand identification papers and expect gratis. In 2017, Cortecito, DR where I was giving shop owners and craft workers English literacy lessons, I witnessed the bulldozing of shops along the beach designed to drive the Haitians out. Those shops were the only source of income for those workers. They were now forced to stroll up and down the beach area to sell the wares they managed to salvage. The threat of deportation was never far from the minds of the Haitian migrants I came to know.

With the research I have uncovered and focused on in this capstone presentation I am hopeful that attention can be given to recognize the intersectionality of race and immigration. Comprehensive immigration reform is needed in both the United States and the Dominican Republic. In the Dominican Republic citizenship of Haitians born citizens has been stripped away beginning in 2014. In the United States the Trump administration has issued a flurry of executive orders that have called for the ending of birthright citizenship. And more importantly, humanitarians and activists need to address basic human rights violations that migrants and asylum seekers face in search of a new home country.

Leaving your home country is a difficult decision, resettling in another country is further complicated if you must face racism, discrimination, violence and other human rights violations. Many of the migrants I have encountered are resilient. Despite the harsh treatment, extreme poverty and challenges they face they persevere. They have managed to navigate two cultures, and at least two languages, along with threats of detention and deportation.

The research clearly demonstrates structural racism impacting the lives of racialized immigrants in both the United States and the Dominican Republic. My posit calls for addressing social inequities and advocating for changes in the immigration policies that exist. We can begin by insisting politicians put an end to racist and xenophobic sentiment.