Haitian Americans

By Nina Glick Schiller, Carolle Charles and John Beierle

The Haitian population in the United States is composed of both persons born in Haiti and persons of Haitian descent. Some Haitians refer to themselves as members of "the Haitian community". Depending on the context, the term "community" may encompass the Haitians who have settled in a particular location such as New York or Miami or all Haitian immigrants to the United States. The term "diaspora" also has become popular among immigrants who use it to convey their sense of belonging to a distinct group living in the United States but who still see Haiti as home.

Because the large-scale migration of Haitians to the United States was precipitated in large part by the civil disorder that accompanied the beginning of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1957, most of the newcomers at first saw themselves as transients and political exiles. This sense of impermanence, as well as long-standing divisions in Haitian society along class, color, and political lines, prevented Haitians from developing collective responses to problems they faced as immigrants in the United States. As the migration increased in the 1970s, U.S. political leaders and the media began to brand Haitians as undesirables, and the U.S. government refused to recognize Haitian immigrants as political refugees. In the 1980s the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) classified Haitians as an HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) risk group. Although the CDC later rescinded its inaccurate labeling, its action had important negative consequences on many Haitian immigrants who lost their jobs or faced increased difficult ies finding work or housing. As a result of the discrimination they faced as Haitians and as black immigrants, many immigrants came to share a common and distinct Haitian identity. Today Haitians have entered into a period of intense reflection on their position, status, and role within U.S. society and their relationship to Haiti. Issues of naturalization, dual citizenship, and empowerment have become part of their agenda.

There are no reliable figures on the number of Haitian immigrants and people of Haitian descent now in the United States. The 1990 U.S. Census reports 225,000 people born in Haiti who were living in the United States. This total does not include people of Haitian descent who were born in the United States and probably does not count the presence of undocumented immigrants in many households. In 1993 the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated that there were 88,000 undocumented Haitians in the United States. Most researchers of Haitian immigration consider that the U.S. Census and INS figures considerably under-represent the size of the Haitian population in the United States. It is likely that one-fifth of Haiti's six million people live outside of Haiti, with the largest concentration settled in the United States.

Immigrants educated in Haiti have different levels of knowledge of French but all Haitians speak Kreyol (Creole), a distinct language in itself and not simply a dialect of French.. Schooling there is predominantly in French but the majority of the people are unable to attend enough school to become literate and attain proficiency in French. Kreyol is the Haitian language that developed when slaves integrated linguistic elements and structure from their different African languages, French, and several trading languages used in Africa and the Caribbean, It is a fully developed language for which linguists have developed a standardized system of orthography. However it has not been taught in Haiti so that most Haitians, even if literate in other languages, do not know how to read or write in Kreyol.

In the 1970s a group of exiled Haitian priests launched a campaign to legitimize the use of Kreyol and began to use it in the celebration of Mass and in other public events in the United States. This created a great deal of controversy among Haitian immigrants, in particular concerning the adoption of Kreyol as the language to be used in bilingual programs for Haitian students in the New York public schools. By the 1990s Kreyol had moved from being the language that Haitians used predominantly only among themselves to the language used at most Haitian meeting and public occasions in the United States. The importance of Kreyol is reflected in the recognition by U.S. federal and state agencies in areas of dense Haitian settlement such as the New York metropolitan region that Haitian Kreyol is as one of the major immigrant languages. About half of the first-generation Haitian immigrants can speak English well. Most Haitians learn some English. Many young Haitians raised in the United States prefer to speak Engli sh and often refuse to respond to their parents when spoken to in Kreyol or French.

During the late eighteenth century many free black Haitians came to the United States to participate in the American Revolution. These revolutionary soldiers included a future leader of the 1804 Haitian revolution, Henry Christophe. Established in 1804 by the only successful slave uprising in history, Haiti was the first black nation in the Western Hemisphere. With the abolition of slavery and the creation of the Haitian state, many slave owners accompanied by some of their slaves took refuge in the United States. Haitians continued to arrive in the United States throughout the nineteenth century and settled in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and New York City, where they contributed to the cultural and economic development of these cities. Traces of this past immigration are found in traditions, lore, customs, and biographies of the immigrant Haitian-American families. In the 1920s and 1930s some Haitian intellectuals, artists, and trade unionists, were active participants in the Harlem Renaissance (New York Cit y). Until 1932 little is known about the volume of Haitian immigration because the U.S. government kept no records of Haitian immigration. From 1932 to 1950 only 5,544 Haitians entered the United States as immigrants. From 1959 to 1993 a total of 302,458 Haitians entered the United States with permanent resident visas and 1,381,240 Haitians arrived with non-immigrant or tourist visas. Until the 1980s a great number of the immigrants who arrived with tourist visas were able to regularize their status and become permanent residents.

Between 1971 and 1981 more then 60,000 Haitians arrived in South Florida by small wooden sailboats. A large number of men, women, and children drowned attempting to sail to the United States. Sometimes their bodies washed up on Florida's beaches, but this dramatic evidence of a people fleeing a repressive regime did not alter the U.S. policy of refusing Haitian refugees political asylum, placing them in detention camps, and deporting them. The refugees believed they were rejected because they were black and because the U.S. government supported the Duvalier dictatorship. Haitians were portrayed in the United States as impoverished, illiterate, and diseased, and labeled "boat people". These negative images ignored the diverse composition of the refugee population and of the Haitian communities in the United States and the presence of a significant middle class.

The U.S. government's treatment of the Haitian refugees led to mass demonstrations of Haitians, class action suits by U.S. civil rights advocates, and to increasing pressure by the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1980 U.S. public attention focused on Haitian immigration when within a few months 12,500 Haitians and 125,000 Cubans arrived by small boats in South Florida. As a result, the Carter administration was forced to grant temporary admittance to Both Haitian and Cuban refugees by creating a special Cuban-Haitian Entrant Status. The practice of deporting Haitians and denying them refugee status continued under the Reagan and Bush administations. In addition the U.S. Coast Guard began the practice of stopping Haitian boats at sea and returning Haitian refugees to Haiti.

The 1990 election of Jean Betrand Aristide to lead the first democratic government in Haitian history helped slow the migration. When a military coup of generals with connections to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew Aristide, Haitians again began to flee to the United States. Most of these individuals were apprehended before they could reach the United States and were returned to Haiti to face the retribution of the military government. During 1994 the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) processed 10,400 applications of persons who files for refugee status, but approved only eighteen percent of those received.

The Haitian migrations of the 1950s and 1960s contained members of the Haitian upper class as well as entrepreneurs, professionals, and skilled workers. Among those who arrived during this period were a relatively large contingent of affluent mulatto families as well as prominent members of the political class. The majority of these immigrants were urbanites, with most coming from Port-au-Prince, the capital. As political and economic conditions continued to deteriorate in Haiti from the 1960s to the 1990s, the social base of the migration broadened. First came Haitians who had been born in rural villages or in towns but had lived in Port-au-Prince, and then people directly from rural areas. Many of the latter immigrants had less skills, education, and money than the first arrivals.

The New York City metropolitan area was the first region of dense Haitian settlement and in 1993 more than one-third of the newly arrived Haitian immigrants continued to settle there. In addition, another third of the newly arrived immigrants settled in either Miami or other cities and towns in South Florida. Boston, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Orlando, Florida, and Washington, D.C. also have sizable Haitian settlements. However, Haitian immigrants have been willing to settle wherever they can find employment including cities in California and Illinois. Almost all Haitian settlements are in urban area, although in the 1980s many Haitian immigrants were migrant farm workers. Haitians also settled in areas such as Bellglade, Florida but worked in agricultural areas along the East Coast.

Like most other immigrant groups, Haitians enter the work force as low-paid wage workers who work long hours, often without benefits. Haitians as a group have a high level of employment. Women are employed almost as frequently as men. In 1990 a total of thirty-four percent of the population worked in service occupations, twenty-one percent as factory operatives, twenty-one percent as clerical or technical workers, nine percent as professionals, five percent as managers, and three percent as farm workers. In New York, for example, Haitians work in industries such as health care, hotels, office cleaning, and transport services. Women in particular work in the home health care industry. Haitians participate very actively in trade union activities in the hospital and hotel industries. The Haitian immigrant population is more highly educated than the Haitian population as a whole. Because of Haiti's weak economy, further impoverished by years of political corruption and repression, many of Haiti's doctors, lawyers, engineers, and teachers are unable to find employment or obtain a decent standard of living in Haiti and are forced to migrate. During their first years of settlement in the United States many of these professionals experience considerable downward mobility, impeded by linguistic and racial barriers. However, most Haitian immigrants with a professional education eventually are able to become part of the U.S. middle class. Beginning in the 1980s, when it became more difficult for foreign-trained doctors and nurses to obtain U.S. certification, Haitian doctors and nurses faced increased barriers to obtaining U.S. credentials. Education continues to be a goal of Haitians after they migrate, so that Haitian adults often attend school as well as work full-time. The 1990 U.S. Census r eports that forty-one percent of Haitian immigrants have less than a high school education, forty-eight percent have at least a high school education, and eleven percent have college degrees or higher. Women are about as likely as men to obtain a high school or college education. Of the Haitians with a professional degree, sixty-three percent are men.

Individual income is low, averaging $11,894 in 1989 with twenty-one percent of the families earning an income below the poverty line. However, the presence in households of several adult wage earners means that households are often able to pool resources, so that the mean household income in 1989 reached $32,161. Haitian immigrants are among the growing number of immigrants in the United States who live transnational lives. They have settled permanently in the United States yet maintain strong ties to Haiti, which they still call "home". People of all class backgrounds in Haiti live their lives across national borders, connected to family, friends, business associates, and political movements in Haiti. Most Haitians do not arrive in family groups but through a process known as chain migration. The immigration of one member of a family household is made possible through a pooling of the resource of those left behind. The immigrant then uses wages both to sustain family members still in Haiti and to provide money for the migration of other members of the family. Until changes in the immigration law in the 1980s women often migrated first because they could obtain permanent resident status by working as domestics. Remittances from Haitian immigrants sustain households throughout Haiti. As an unemployed man in Haiti put i t, "When someone is in the United States, he is the wealth of people here."

Neighborhoods of dense Haitian settlement in Brooklyn and Miami provide a base for small Haitian businesses. These include record stores, travel agencies, restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and barber and beauty shops. Haitian doctors and dentists provide services for a Haitian clientele. The reduction in the number of manufacturing jobs, racial discrimination, and the difficulties they face in obtaining legal documentation force many immigrants to begin small informal businesses. Vans operated by male drivers offer regular and inexpensive transportation services in areas with large concentrations of immigrants. Women use their kitchens to cater parties, weddings, and other social events. Their living rooms are transformed into day-care centers. People sell goods imported from Haiti from their homes, and earn money be dressmaking, tailoring, repairing automobiles, and obtain commissions by transporting cash to Haiti. Haitian businesses that focus on financial services and the flow of money, cargo, and travelers across international borders have been growing in size and significance. Services provided include insurance, accounting, and transfer of remittances and investments to Haiti. The largest Haitian businesses are cash transfer firms that send money and packages to Haiti as part of the ongoing pattern of maintaining transnational connections. By 1990, remittances sent through money transfer businesses totaled $125 million which constituted about thirty percent of the Haitian state revenue.

An equal number of Haitian women and men have migrated to the United States. The degree to which Haitian women feel that migration has improved their lives depends on a number of factors including their class background in Haiti and whether or not they have been able to achieve education or employment security in the United States. Most adult women work, and women find that they virtually have two full time jobs since they are responsible for the housework and child care. Haitian men have been slow to contribute to the housework, although younger men do some cleaning and child-rearing. Women often find their lives much more difficult in the United States because many immigrants had servants in Haiti. Some of the burden of work is relieved by having grandparents or other women in an extended family share the responsibilities of cooking or cleaning.

Two-thirds of Haitian adults marry, and marriage is an important and socially prestigious relationship for Haitians of all classes. Formal marriage is less common among poorer Haitians who favor common-law marriages. Marriage is often seen as a project of mutual interest between a man and a woman rather than a source of friendship. Many changes occur with immigration to the United States particularly among members of the middle class. Increasingly they tend to see husbands and wives as companions yet there is also an increased rate of divorce. Most Haitian immigrants marry other Haitians, although there has been some intermarriage of Haitians with other Caribbeans, with African Americans, and with Euro-Americans.

Households often include members of an extended family including siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins of the husband and wife. Women rarely live alone with minor children. Extended kin beyond the household are also important in the daily life of immigrant families. Kinship networks are the primary support for Haitian immigrants when they resettle in the United States. Kin provide housing for new arrivals, assistance in finding housing and employment, and advice on U.S. culture. After the newcomer is settled, an extended network of kin continue to provide sources of companionship, assistance with child care, and support in times of illness, job loss, or the loss of a family member through death. Weekends are often spent at family gathering. Husbands and wives often have their own kinship networks to which they look for support.

In poorer families children are sometimes sent back to Haiti to be raised by grandparents or kin so that their parents can work full time or hold more than one job. Such separations are often painful for both parents and children but are seen as necessary for the survival of all members of the family. Children are usually brought to the United States when they are teenagers so they can learn English, attend high school in the United States, and then obtain work. However, effort are made to keep children within a Haitian family network because U.S. culture is seen as failing to teach children manners and respect for kin, elders, and teachers. Haitian children born or raised in the United States and living in inner-city neighborhoods interact most often with African-American children and tend to adopt the cultural patterns of their peers, especially clothing and hairstyles. When they become young adults, second-generation Haitians often begin to use and enjoy their immigrant networks and family ties and may emb race some form of Haitian identity.

Haitian immigrants have formed a multiplicity of organizations. Participation in organized activities often helps immigrants reestablish a network beyond family ties and provides for social support. Haitian organizations also offer an arena in which social status can be obtained or validated, both in the United States and in Haiti. Organizations tend to be based in a single locality in which Haitians have settled rather than being regional or national in scope. However, many organizations in the United states carry out activities in Haiti. These organizations include soccer clubs and leagues; Masonic temples; associations of doctors, nurses, or other professionals; associations of artists, including dance troupes and theatrical groups; political organizations; community organizations; and hometown associations. Many of the community organizations were established with the assistance of U.S. philanthropic organizations or churches and have been dependent on financial assistance from these sources. Services th ey have provided to assist newcomers include literacy classes, English classes, and counseling on immigrants' rights. In contrast, hometown associations, which are often called "regional associations", unite people from the same village, town, or city in Haiti to organize activities to assist people "back home". Funds are raised for projects that include clinics, electrification, cemetery reconstruction, and literacy assistance.

The continuing familial, economic, religious, social, and political ties between Haitians in the United States and people in Haiti were formally recognized by the Aristide government in 1991. The territory of the Haitian state is divided into nine geographic divisions called "departments". Haitians in the United States were designated part of "The Tenth Department" of Haiti. By implication the diaspora became part of the Haitian state. The designation of the "Tenth Department" gave public recognition to the fact that Haitian immigrants have participated in political processes that affect Haiti through lobbying, demonstrating, and organizing in the United States. Over the years increasing numbers of Haitians have decided to become U.S. citizens. In 1994 a total of forty percent of the Haitians with permanent resident visas and who had completed the requisite residency period became naturalized U.S. citizens.

The majority of Haitian immigrants identify themselves as Catholics. Catholic parishes in areas of significant Haitian settlement such as New York, New Jersey, Miami, and Chicago have recruited Haitian priests. The celebration of mass in Kreyol is often accompanied by Haitian drummers and Haitian music. Haitian immigrants have formed lay organizations to support the Church and have looked to Catholic agencies as Catholic Charities to provide assistance in settlement. In Haiti many more women attend Mass on a regular basis, but in the United States men also have begun to participate regularly in church services. Haitian Catholic priests emerged as important community leaders in the efforts to obtain democratic government in Haiti and contributed to the building of transnational political movements and in efforts to raise money for literacy campaigns in Haiti. Catholic youth groups have become an important component of community life which provide a supportive space for young people to express a Haitian identit y within a U.S. context.

A growing minority of immigrants belong to Protestant congregations that include Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Methodists, and the Church of God (Église de Dieu). At first Haitians joined multi-ethnic congregations but in many instances they were assisted by Protestant church organizations to establish separate Haitian churches headed by Haitian ministers. Some of these congregations meet in established church buildings; others use store-fronts. Haitian forms of healing using Protestant prayers and the assistance of BON ANJ (good souls) are practiced by some Haitian Protestants. Protestant churches have also assisted in immigrant settlement, providing health fairs, employment assistance, and English classes. Some congregations are linked to churches in Haiti and send money for community health projects and schools in Haiti. In general these congregations have kept their distance from Haitian politics.

The set of religious beliefs that Haitians call "serving the spirits", scholars refer to as Vodun , and the U.S. media label "Voodoo", is also practiced in the United States. Services are held in the home of the priest or priestess and often last throughout the night. In New York the basement of a private house is often converted to a place of worship. Singing is accompanied by the use of three drums. The spirits speak through the initiates, who go into a trance and provide guidance, comfort, and healing for immigrants who must deal with the difficulties of adjusting to their new life. Women and men of all generations as well as children participate. Because Haitian Vodun has been misunderstood and distorted by the media, most Haitians are reluctant to talk about their knowledge of Vodun. Children learn not to speak about their experiences in public. Haitian Vodun also fosters transnational connections. Some believers return to Haiti for initiation or to fulfill responsibilities to the spirits. In public Vodu n priest tend to be more prominent than priestesses while in private practices it is likely that women predominate.

Haitian painting has achieved an international reputation and Haitian artists who have settled in the United States continue this tradition. Because Haiti is linked in the public mind with a particular "naive" art style of brightly colored paintings depicting the Haitian countryside and Vodun celebrations, Haitian artists who wish to pursue other art styles or to work in other media have had difficulties finding a place for their work. Ritual objects such as embroidered and sequin-covered flags depicting various spirits have been recognized as an art form and put on display in U.S. museums.

Since the beginning of large-scale migrations, bands from Haiti have toured in the United States, and recordings of their music are available in Haitian stores. The Haitian music industry has become transnational so that recording for audio cassettes or videos may be done in Haiti, while production may take place in the United States. Older forms of dance music such as minijazz and COMPAS, with lyrics focused on male-female relationships are being replaced by a "roots movement" in Haiti and among Haitian musicians in the United States. This music incorporates Vodun rhythms and melodies into an exuberant music that combines an awareness of Haitian suffering with the joy of resistance. Some of the newer bands include Haitians born in the United States. This newer Haitian music has moved into public spaces as part of world beat radio programs and urban dance clubs. RARA music, traditionally a peasant Vodun music in which bands take to the streets during Lent, has begun to be performed in parks in New York during the summer. Haitian immigrants from middle class background who know little about peasant culture become acquainted with their cultural heritage through the performance of "roots movement" music, including the transformed RARA.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Haitian American file consists of eleven documents, all in English. The time coverage for the file ranges from approximately 1958 to the 1980s. The primary focus of the file is on the Haitian population in New York City (seven documents), with a secondary foci on Miami, Florida (two documents), and on Evanston, Illinois and the United States as a whole (one document each). Probably the most comprehensive study of the Haitian Americans is that of Laguerre (1984, no. 1) which although centering on the New York City area does provide some additional data on other Haitian groups in the United States (e.g., regarding internal migrations, etc.). Nearly all the works in this file deal in a greater or lesser degree with the Haitian emigration to the United States, settlement patterns, the establishment of new ethnic identities, cultural adaptation, and relations with the black American population. Other major topics of ethnographic interest are: sociological and sociolinguistic analysis of Haitians in America in Zéphir (1996, no. 6); language use (French, Creole, English) in Stafford (1987, no. 11); social structure of the Haitian community in Woldemikael (1989, no. 2) and Stafford (1987, no. 10); economics and education in Stepick (1986, no. 8) and Woldemikael; and family organization and structure in Laguerre and Fjellman (1985, no. 3).

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by Nina Glick Schiller and Carolle Charles in September, 1997. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in December, 1997.

• American mediators (to the Haitian-Americans) -- category 629

• BOLITA -- a Spanish-Caribbean numbers game -- category 525

• BORLETTE -- a popular form of lottery -- category 525

• Community Aid Program -- a cooperative venture between Evanston, Illinois police and city residents -categories 625, 575

• Emergency Schools Aid Act (ESAA) -- category 658

• Haitian American Community Association -- category 575

• Haitian American Political Organization (HAPO) -- categories 665, 575

• Haitian Refugee Center (HRC) -- categories 167, 747

• Haitian Task Force (HTF) -- categories 441, 452, 179

• Human Relations Committee (HRC) -- an agency of the Evanston, Illinois government -- category 633

• immigrant remittance -- category 457

• Information Center for Haitians (ICH) -- category 575

• rotating credit associations -- categories 452, 454

• SANGNE -- see rotating credit associations service centers, neighborhood -- category 747

• voodoo cults -- category 794

Brown, K. Mama Lola: a Voudou priestess in Brooklyn. California: University of California Press, 1991

Buchannan, S. "The Haitians: the cultural meaning of race and ethnicity." In New Immigrants in New York City: race and ethnicity among migrants in New York City. Nancy Foner, ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987

Buchannan, S. " Language and identity: Haitians in New York." In Caribbean immigrants in New York, revised edition, C. Sutton and E. Chaney, eds. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1992

Charles, Carolle. "Transnationalism in the construct of Haitian migrants' racial categories of identity in New York City." In Towards a transnational perspective on migration: race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism reconsidered. N. Glick Schiller, L. Basch, and C. Blanc-Szanton, eds. New York: New York Academy of Science, 1992

Chierci, R. Demele, "Making it": migration and adaptation among Haitian boat people in the United States. New York: AMS Press, 1991

Schiller, N. and G. Fouron. "'Everywhere we go we are in danger': Ti Manno and the emergence of a Haitian transnational identity." American Ethnologist -- Vol. 17, no. 2 (1990): 329-347

Schiller, Nina, J. DeWind, M.L. Brutus, C. Charles, G. Fouron, and Louis Thomas. "All in the same boat? Unity and diversity among Haitian immigrants". In Caribbean immigrants in New York, revised edition. C. Sutton and E. Chaney, eds. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1992

Laguerre, M. American odyssey: Haitian in New York. Ithaca: Cornell, 1984

Stepick, A. "The Haitian informal sector in Miami". City and Society, Vol. 5(1991): 10-12

Woldemikael, T. Becoming black American: Haitians and American institutions in Evanston, Illinois. New York: AMS Press, 1989