Recent Haitian Arrivals

Every week there are hundreds of Haitians being caught on the seas between The Bahamas and Haiti. What is disturbing to some extent is the fact that most of these illegal immigrants are young people. Based on television reports, they seem to be teenage boys, young men, and from time to time, young women.

It is common knowledge that Haiti faces a serious unemployment problem. The country is just not providing enough jobs to keep its people in Haiti. It has become the norm for Haitians to leave their homeland in search of employment elsewhere. It seems as if employment is sought anywhere by Haitians.

The international donor community and agencies like the World Bank have realized that they have a responsibility to assist Haiti in funding its infrastructural requirements which are critical to putting that country on the path to economic development and lift it from its present status as the poorest country in this hemisphere.

Haiti is also being characterized as a country with surplus labour and this is also being perceived to be the Haitian government’s policy to export its surplus labour to labour deficient states like The Bahamas. This strategy is very likely to remain in place since Haiti has one of the youngest population distributions in the hemisphere. Most Haitians are 35 and under, and in the prime years of child birth. Population growth in Haiti will continue to exceed the country’s capacity to create jobs.

It is this background which is fueling this continual exodus of Haitians to The Bahamas.

Haitian society is very different from Bahamian society. In many respects Haiti has had less European influence than say a former British colony like The Bahamas where British institutions were established. The socialization of the Haitian took a different stance, hence the Haitian approach to societal issues is very different to the approach taken by Bahamians. A prime example is child labour and domestic work.

Haiti has a system where children live with a family performing domestic chores for lodging and food. They are called restavek. Sociologists see this as a form of exploitation of child labour; this is an act which the United Nations has outlawed.

When large numbers of immigrants take up residence in a country, particularly in enclaves like the Mudd in Abaco, or Russell Island in North Eleuthera, customs and mores from the immigrant community are bound to creep into the culture. Some of these like the restavek have to be kept under surveillance because child labour is frowned upon and is against Bahamian law. It is these types of nuances which Bahamians cannot afford to slip into our societal norms.

Many of these recent arrivals are really old arrivals. A high percentage of those who have been repatriated return to The Bahamas almost without impunity and flaunt our laws. They return to old jobs, old neighborhoods and resume their old way of going about things. Many of them are accommodated by relatives and facilitated by former employers who aid and abet them in their efforts to return to these shores as illegal workers.

It is this attitude which gives the illegal immigrant the feeling that he or she has a right to live and work in The Bahamas. There is a deep fear among Bahamians that Haitians will someday outnumber Bahamians. This has occurred before in The Bahamas and can happen again.

When the Loyalists, after 1776, moved from the United States to The Bahamas, they bought their slaves. It was this event which changed the demography of The Bahamas because it marked the commencement of the Africans out numbering the Europeans.

Greater effort must be made to protect our southern border. For decades there has been talk about a southern garrison on Inagua to patrol the movement of Haitian vessels as well as poachers from the Dominican Republic from entering The Bahamas illegally for employment or to fish our lucrative fishing grounds on the Great Bahama Bank.

The Bahamas is experiencing a relentless influx of illegal immigrants. We know the Haitian government is powerless to exert any control over its people leaving that impoverish country. It seems as if the only mechanism in the arsenal of The Bahamas is to repatriate those who have been interdicted. There must be more imaginative and effective ways to combat this situation. Answers have to be found; if not, we run the risk of events similar to those of the late 18th century. History could repeat itself.