Abstract

COULANGE MERONE, Schwarz  and  TORRE CANTALAPIEDRA, Eduardo. Strategies of Haitian Migrant Families for Their Children in Face of the Dominican Republic’s Anti-Immigrant Policies. Migr. Inter [online]. 2020, vol.11, e1742.  Epub Oct 02, 2020. ISSN 2594-0279.  https://doi.org/10.33679/rmi.v1i1.1742.

The migration policies of the Dominican Republic (DR in the hereafter) have restricted the access to Dominican citizenship for thousands of Haitian children brought to this country during childhood, as well as for minors born in the DR from Haitian parents; that is Dominico-Haitian children. However, parents have not passively accepted this situation. The goal of this paper is to analyze two strategies of Haitian parents living in the DR for their children, set to minimize the negative effects of anti-immigrant policies: 1) obtaining official DR citizenship documents for their children, and 2) ensuring the attendance of children to both Dominican and Haitian schools. Also, the current situation of Haitian- origin populations in the DR is set into historical and political context here.

Keywords : immigration policies; strategies of migrant families; policies for access to nationality; Haiti; Dominican Republic.