Jessica's Thesis


COLORADO COLLEGE
Haitians in Limbo:
The Plight of Second Generation Haitians in The Bahamas



This is an oil  painting I did of a Haitian Wreck in 2008





Jessica Filkins
5/8/2011



Abstract

The increasing number of Haitian immigrants arriving in the Bahamas each day is a well-publicized and very sensitive issue for both Haitians and Bahamians.  The concern, however, is now shifting from a focus on deportation of illegal immigrants to dealing with the growing number of children born in the Bahamas to both legal and illegal Haitian immigrants. This paper will address two topics of major concern for second generation Haitians living in the Bahamas. The first is their difficulty in obtaining citizenship. The second is their concern for the future mental health of the children growing up in the squalor of what amounts to refugee camps like Pigeon Pea and the Mud, two large Haitian settlements located on the island of Abaco in the northern Bahamas. The goal of this thesis is to address the subject of Haitian Immigration in the Bahamas from the largely unvoiced perspective of Second generation Haitian Bahamians. I hope that this paper will encourage Haitian-Bahamians to work together to insure a better life for their future generations.  I hope it will also inspire the Bahamian community to allow these second generation Haitian Bahamians to better assimilate into Bahamian society on both a personal and national level.


























Introduction


The sons and daughters of Haitians who have migrated to the Bahamas face both social and institutional discrimination. Many of these second generation Haitians, those born in the Bahamas to parents who came from Haiti, are not only ostracized by their Bahamian peers but are further oppressed by the government’s unwillingness to grant them citizenship. Evence, a 32-year-old Bahamian citizen whose parents immigrated from Haiti in the 1970s, stated
      For most of my life I felt closer to my Haitian heritage than my Bahamian heritage because Bahamians typically don’t accept a person born in the Bahamas but of Haitian descent as a citizen. They almost feel as if you’re taking over. It’s kind of hostile.
Evence, like many other Haitian-Bahamians lacks a true nationality and suffers from an identity crisis.
There are large numbers of Haitian migrants living in the Bahamas and more arrive by boat every day. Most are ultimately seeking refuge in the United States but many find work in the Bahamas, where they settle and raise their children.  Immigrants who just arrived from Haiti are willing to work for wages that are deemed “unacceptable to Bahamians” (IOM, 2005). The Bahamian economy is dependent on the unskilled and semi-skilled labor these largely uneducated, Haitian-Creole speaking migrants provide. The Bahamian-born children of these migrants attend Bahamian public school, learn English, and do not plan to become gardeners or construction workers like their parents.  They are held back, however, from achieving their goals by both social and institutional oppression. And their voices are not heard. In an article for the Bahama Pundit Larry Smith divides the “Haitian problem” into two key issues: “[S]tabilizing the size of the Haitian community, and integrating long-term Haitian residents into the mainstream of Bahamian society.” (Smith, 2008) This paper will address the second issue from the largely unvoiced perspective of Haitian nationals and Haitian Bahamians with an emphasis on the on the concern for the way the children of these immigrants are being raised. 
These second generation Haitians are not only discriminated against by their Bahamian peers for being of Haitian descent, but are also denied the right to Bahamian citizenship until they reach the age of 18. At this point they have a one-year window to apply for citizenship, but often have to wait many years before actually receiving a passport.  Bahamians and Haitians alike insist that the system needs to change. As Junior, a well-established Haitian-Bahamian living in Hope Town, explained, “The most initial thing that needs to change is the fact that the children, the young kids who don’t have a solid middle class background, be afforded the fair opportunities.” Pounding his fist on the table he exclaimed,
The child was born here. Give that child a Bahamian passport! Stop this discrimination of giving them a Bahamian birth certificate and telling them that they will have to choose what nationality they will be when they turn 18 years old. I wonder how they would feel if the US did that to them when they go have a child in the States?

Without citizenship these young adults cannot travel outside the country, take out loans, buy land, obtain a driver’s license, vote, own property or receive any of the other basic rights of citizenship.
The issues relating to the arrival and deportation of illegal immigrants are well documented and publicized, but the issues facing the children of these immigrants, who were born in the Bahamas and can call no other nation home, are largely underreported. These children and young adults not only grow up facing discrimination in both school and work environments, but are further held back by the government at a time in their lives when it is most important to exercise the basic rights of citizenship.  These second generation Haitians are in a state of “limbo,” treated like outcasts in the country in which they were born and raised, and in many cases are officially citizens of nowhere.

Methods

I traveled to the Abacos, the northern-most island chain in The Bahamas, in December 2010 to interview Haitian nationals, Bahamians, and Haitian-Bahamians about the issues relating to Haitian immigration to the Bahamas. Prior to my trip, I had found a significant quantity of literature regarding the social, economic and political issues pertaining to Haitian migration in the Bahamas, but little information voicing the concerns of second-generation Haitians. I chose to do my fieldwork in Marsh Harbor and Hope Town, because they are places where Haitians outnumber Bahamans.
Over the course of four weeks, I formally interviewed 18 people, producing five hours of recorded conversation with nine of them[1]. I talked with at least thirty other Bahamian residents including business owners, taxicab drivers, teachers, employers of Haitian immigrants, and middle school and high-school students on the subject of Haitian migration to the Bahamas and citizenship laws. I made four trips to Marsh Harbor, where I interviewed local police, immigration officials, social workers, educators, local politicians, nurses in the clinics. I also spoke with residents of the Pigeon Pea and Mud, two overcrowded communities which lie in the middle of downtown Marsh Harbor.  Almost every time I took the 15-minute golf cart ride from the south end of Elbow  Cay to Hope Town, I picked up a Haitian walking along the road and gave him or her a ride. Most of the Haitians I met who had recently arrived from Haiti spoke very little English.  I was surprised to find, however, that all of the second-generation Haitians spoke perfect English and were extremely articulate.
Throughout the Bahamas tensions between the two ethnicities are high and the issue of how to deal with the ever-growing population of Haitian migrants is extremely sensitive. Through my interviews, I found that the psychological and social oppression is not as debilitating as the structural oppression represented by  the lengthy, costly, and frustrating process of obtaining a Bahamian passport. The current literature on the topic of Haitian migrants in the Bahamas is mostly written from the Bahamian perspective.
Most of the Haitians and Bahamians I interviewed believe it is in the best interest of the Bahamas, as a nation, to accept those Haitians who are already established in Bahamian society, to treat them as equals, and to act as role models rather than oppressors. Many of my interviewees also expressed the need for a leader to emerge from the Haitian-Bahaman community who will unite those of Haitian descent living in the Bahamas and help them fight for their rights to equal representation in government and automatic citizenship. 
This paper will address the questions: what does it mean to be a Haitian in limbo, and how does statelessness affect Haitian Nationals, Haitian-Bahamians, and other Bahamians on both a personal and national level? I will begin by outlining what is known as the “Haitian problem” in the Bahamas. I will then explain how I became interested in Haitian migrants followed by review of the current literature on the topic. The remainder of this paper is divided into two sections. The first is focused on the difficulty of obtaining citizenship and the concept of national identity, and the second section voices the concerns my interviewees have for the children growing up in Pigeon Pea and the Mud, two large, poverty-stricken Haitian settlements located in the middle of the town of Marsh Harbor.

Background

I borrowed the term “limbo” from Gay Kane of COX News service who wrote an article titled “Haitians living in Limbo” based on interviews he conducted in Marsh Harbor in 2003. In the context of this paper, the state of limbo refers to the condition in which a person of Haitian descent, born in the Bahamas, is neither a citizen of Haiti nor the Bahamas. This phrase can also refer to Haitians living in the Bahamas who are ultimately trying to reach the United States. According to Refugees International 2009 progress report on a global survey on statelessness.   Situations of legal limbo result from many factors such as political change, expulsion of people from a territory, discrimination, nationality based solely on descent, and laws regulating marriage and birth registration.” Even those Haitian-Bahamians who were able to finally obtain Bahaman citizenship feel they are in a state of limbo because they do not feel accepted in the Bahamas, yet most of them have never even been to Haiti.
The flow of migrants in the Caribbean is no new occurrence. From the forced movement of the slave trade beginning in the seventeenth century to the present voluntary migration of people looking for a land of better opportunity, the history of the Caribbean has been shaped by migration (Ferguson 2003, 6). The largest exodus of immigrants is from Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. The 2010 earthquake, devastating hurricanes, cholera epidemics and political turmoil have dramatically increased the motivation to leave Haiti. Although most Haitian immigrants seek permanent residence in United States, almost all pass through the Bahamas and many remain there (College of the Bahamas 2005).
“Although Haitians have been migrating to the Bahamas for centuries, the Haitian immigration ‘problem’ only dates back to the 1950s” (Nicolls 2011).In some communities, such as Marsh Harbor, on the island of Abaco, Haitians outnumber Bahamians two to one Although the Bahamas’ economy is dependent on cheap immigrant labor, many citizens continue to complain about the immigrant population. The press further fuels ethnic tensions between Haitians and Bahamans.[2]As the central Abaco Administrator Revis Rolle stated in an article by Candia Dames for the Bahamas  Journal,
[This is] a problem that seemed to have survived several governments and it seems now that these persons who are very irate have lived with the problem from day one. Mind you, over the years, some of them might have helped to perpetuate the problem by hiring illegals, but now the numbers are seemingly overwhelming and has become a problem to those who initially hired some of them.[3]

The topic of Haitian migrants in the Bahamas is a very sensitive issue that Bahamian politicians to avoid addressing.[4] The young, second-generation Haitians are the ones paying the price.  Bahamian citizens are suffering as well; they are missing out on the opportunity to inspire a vibrant, motivated, content, future generation of Haitian-Bahamians.[5]
The geological structure of the Bahamas itself, combined with its proximity to Haiti, makes its borders extremely difficult to patrol. The Bahamas is an archipelagic nation comprised of over 700 islands, encompassing about 13,939 square miles. The Islands of The Bahamas lie directly in the route of immigrants coming from Haiti on their way to the United States. The Bahamian government reportedly spent $120,000 repatriating Haitian migrants in 2010.[6] The most recent census account in 2000 reports the population of the Bahamas to be 353,658 persons.[7] The majority of the population of the Bahamas, as well as the majority of the Haitian immigrants, live on the island of New Providence, the location of Nassau, the nation’s capital. Although there is no accurate account of the number of undocumented Haitians living in the Bahamas, estimates range from 30,000 to 60,000. [8] As Larry Smith wrote, in an article for the Bahamian Pundit, “we don’t even know how many Haitians (and others) are living amongst us, much less what they are thinking and doing.” [9]  For this reason I decided to travel to the Bahamas to interview Haitian immigrants, particularly second-generation Haitians, to hear their point of view and see what they believe can be done to improve the so-called “Haitian problem.”
My interest in Haitian migration began when I was a child, homeschooled on my parents’ boat in the Bahamas. Throughout our travels, we encountered countless Haitian wrecks, which I enjoyed diving on and exploring. One calm, sunny day some seven years ago my family and I were spearfishing 11 miles off shore in the Exumas, the southern-most island chain in the Bahamas, when we spotted a small sailboat in the distance. As the boat came closer into view we noticed that it looked like many of the Haitian wrecks we had seen, but this one was under way! It was about thirty feet in length with a knobby mast that looked like a tree growing out of its center. The wooden hull was covered in chipping green paint, which contrasted beautifully with the red waterline. There was barely enough wind to fill the limp, tattered sail, which was constructed of many recycled pieces of canvas craftily sewn together. We could make out three figures standing on the tar asphalt roofing that lined the top deck.  We suspected that many more were staying out of sight below decks.
            The men on deck watched nervously as we zoomed toward them in our 14-foot navy drab inflatable. As we pulled up alongside their boat, and the figures came into view, I remember thinking they were the saddest, skinniest yet most beautiful people I had ever seen. We decided to give them the food we had packed for lunch and a jug of water. The first man took the gallon of water and immediately began chugging it before passing it to the next man. I have never seen people appreciate water more in my life. Although they did not speak English, they seemed extremely grateful. We left, but the image of those starving faces never left my mind.
This experience caused me to wonder what could drive these people to pay between $1,000 and $3,000 and risk their lives to cross 500 miles of ocean, dotted with dangerous shallow reefs, in makeshift boats, with no guarantee of survival or of even reaching land before being intercepted by the US Coast Guard or Bahamian Defense Force. Those who make it to shore alive are homeless, jobless and faced with discrimination, racism and the constant threat of deportation.[10]

Literature Review

Before coming to the Bahamas I thoroughly researched Haitian and Bahaman history; Haitian migration to The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic and the United States; statelessness as a world-wide issue; and the current status of Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas. I found that what is missing most from the literature is the perspective of Haitian immigrants themselves and of Bahamian-born, second-generation Haitians in particular. Immigration issues are not unique to the Bahamas. The United States, France, and Canada, just to name a few, are also struggling with the ramifications of large influx of immigrants.
The most recent and extensive body of literature on the subject of Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas is the 2005 report for the International Organization for Migration on “Haitian Migrants in the Bahamas” produced by The College of the Bahamas. This report, which I will refer to as the IOM study, points out that,
When one considers that Haitian nationals have had a presence in The Bahama Islands for over 200 years and that there has been a significant influx of migrants since the 1950s, it is surprising that there is such a paucity of literature on the subject generally and specifically on the Haitian migrant population.

The IOM study included a detailed review of the literature and media from which they concluded “press reports are often inaccurate and fuel ethnic tensions within society” and that “there is a lack of feature articles about Haitian nationals in The Bahamas or opinion articles by Haitian nationals (or Haitian Bahamians)” (IOM 2005; 13). The College Of The Bahamas also conducted a series of surveys and interviews from which they created comprehensive data tables and graphs, covering many issues relating to Haitian migrants including education, health care, and labor. The IOM report compares their data to that of two previous studies to show changes over time.  Their major findings include the fact that “there is a distrust of Bahamian authorities by the Haitian community, it is difficult to distinguish between resident Haitian community and flow-though Haitian migrants, and Haitian nationals utilize government education and healthcare services.” The IOM report concludes that,
Until all levels of enforcement are improveed and a system is set up which will allow only those with valid work permits to enter the country, The Bahamas will continue to be a prime place in which Haitian nationals will seek work; and society, although utilizing their cheap Labor, will continue to complain about their presence

Prior to this report there had only been two official studies on the Haitian population in the Bahamas that have used questionnaires and interviews. The first study was conducted by Marshall in 1979. Her study concluded that Haitians living in The Bahamas will continue to have difficulty assimilating into society due to marginalization and that conditions in Haiti will only encourage more Haitians to immigrate to the Bahamas in the future.  Marshall recently wrote a review of the IOM study and suggested that the Bahamas needs to implement a comprehensive immigration policy. She believes the first step to creating such a policy is to compose a national economic development plan that would take into account the role of imported labor and education and the future labor requirements of the country.[11]
The second study of Haitian migrants in the Bahamas was conducted by St. Jacques in 2001. She interviewed and surveyed Haitian nationals and their Bahamian-born children in the same neighborhood where Marshall conducted her research to examine how the second-generation of Haitian immigrants were integrating into society. She concluded that,
[I]n fact, the second generation of Bahamian-born Children of Haitian migrants are well assimilated, have obtained an education and are for all intents and purposes “Bahamian.’” The “Haitian Problem” has metamorphosed from the scourge of illegal migrants to a problem of granting citizenship to “Haitian Bahamians.”

With the exception of several small newspaper articles, the only report I found that focuses directly on the issues of obtaining citizenship in The Bahamas was conducted by Kristy Belton, a student from the University of Connecticut. She traveled to Nassau where she interviewed many Bahamians but only a few Haitians. Belton titled her journal article “Arendt’s Children in The Bahamian Context: The Children of Migrants Without Status.” Although she did a thorough job of outlining the issues of statelessness both in the Bahamas and in an international context, she focused only on stateless children in the Bahamas when the real issue of concern, as I have discovered though my interviews with second-generation Haitians, is stateless adults.
According to youth Advocate Program international (YAP), “a child is defined as a person under  the age of 18 unless national Law recognizes the age of majority earlier.” None of the thirty plus people of Haitian descent whom I interviewed said they had any trouble obtaining a birth certificate or travel documents before the age of 18. Though many expressed frustration about the process of renewing their travel documents, the real issue of concern is the period of time between when they apply for citizenship at the age of 18 and when/if they actually receive it. The years between the ages of 18 and the mid 20s are a critical period in a persons life, when having the ability to travel, to attend to college outside the Bahamas, to receive financial aid and scholarships, and to obtain a legitimate job are the foundations that direct a career path and shape the rest of a person’s life.
Based on my interviews, I found that there are two major concerns facing Haitians born in the Bahamas. One issue is that of citizenship, and the other is the concern that the children of these immigrants, particularly those living in the Peas and Mud communities, are not growing up in the nurturing, safe environment that every child deserves. The early childhood trauma these young people face can result in a future generation of discontent or physiologically impaired Haitian-Bahamians.[12] As Larry Smith Wrote in an article for the Bahama Pundit,
Failure to integrate immigrants and minorities can exacerbate social and economic schisms and fragment societies along ethnic, racial and religious lines. The risk lies in creating a visible minority underclass that is dysfunctional and unreceptive to policy intervention. Such an outcome would further (aggravate) disparities and (create) a downward spiral of poverty, ghettoization and despair.[13]

By no assimilating children of Haitian migrants into the culture and by not allowing those born in the Bahamas to obtain citizenship, the Bahamas is cultivating a generation of discontent, unpatriotic, stateless Haitian-Bahamians. Many fear this treatment could result in a potentially violent uprising in the future.

The Issue of Citizenship


The difficulty of obtaining Bahamian citizenship is an issue of major concern for second-generation Haitians throughout The Bahamas. Although discrimination, oppression and racism have played major roles in the lives of those I interviewed, most of them have been able to cope with the anti-Haitian sentiment with a surprising amount of optimism and pride. When it comes to obtaining citizenship, however, no amount of perseverance and intelligence seems to expedite the process.

Throughout the Bahamas, there are people of Haitian descent waiting to receive citizenship, and until the government processes their papers and gives them a passport, they are stateless. Madeline, an articulate young woman whose parents arrived from Haiti by boat 40 years ago, has been waiting for her passport for three years. She explained,
Your documents go in when you are 18. You are basically waiting for them to call you, which they never do. You have to keep calling them, keep calling them. You go through a whole lot to get it and sometimes you get it a year later and sometimes you don’t. You just gotta wait.

Without a passport she has few freedoms and no rights of citizenship.  Madeline tried to apply for Haitian citizenship so that she could, at the very least, travel to Florida but the Haitian government denied her request and told her to just wait for her Bahamian passport. Like many other second-generation Haitians, Madeline is stuck in this state of limbo, a citizen of nowhere.
According to “A Progress Report on Global Survey of Statelessness” for the Refugees International website, “Nationality is a fundamental human right and a foundation of identity, dignity, justice, peace, and security. But statelessness, or the lack of effective nationality, affects millions of men, women, and children worldwide.” Examples of groups who fall under what Refugees International defines as statelessness include Roma, Bedoins, Kurds, Palestinians, Tibetans, and millions of individuals without an official birth certificate or formal paper declaring their nationality.[14]Some of the setbacks of not having a nationality are,
[H]aving no legal protection or right to participate in political processes, inadequate access to health care and education, poor employment prospects and poverty, little opportunity to own property, travel restrictions, social exclusion, vulnerability to trafficking, harassment, and violence. Statelessness has a disproportionate impact on women and children.[15]

In the case of the Bahamas, these second-generation Haitians are stateless because the Bahamas Citizenship laws, which have not changed since the country became independent in 1973. These laws state that a person born in the Bahamas to parents who are not Bahamian citizens has a one-year window, beginning on his or her 18th birthday, to apply for citizenship, to which they are automatically entitled.[16]
In an effort to discover what is causing the application process to be so slow and complicated, I made multiple phone calls and sent e-mails to the Immigration Department and, specifically, to the Director of Immigration, Jack Thompson. I asked where I could find more information about the citizenship process and if the government has plans to change or improve it. Those who responded said that they could tell me no more information than what is on the Bahamas government website, Citizenship section. I have attached a copy of this webpage in Appendix 1. (Please refer to this appendix for further information on who is entitled to automatic citizenship, who can apply for citizenship and how the process is carried out.) When I asked my interviewees why it takes so long for Haitians born in the Bahamas to receive citizenship, most of them believed that the delay is just another form of oppression by the government.

I met my first interviewee, Evence Joseph, at the Abaco Inn. It was a beautiful morning with an onshore breeze cooling the air as it began to heat up. We sat at the bar overlooking the reef, where small waves came crashing in. I had never conducted a formal, recorded interview before but my nervousness quickly melted away as Evence introduced himself with his mellow, lucid speech and kind smile.  I enthusiastically explained my project and asked his permission to record the conversation.  Evence ended up being the person with whom I spent the most time,  particularly after he invited me to take a trip with him to the old Star Plantation on the north end of Abaco, where we visited a tiny Haitian settlement.[17]

Evence was born in the Bahamas 32 years ago. His parents came from Haiti by boat in the 1970s. Evence spent the first seven years of his life in Haiti as his parents thought it would be a better place for him to grow up while they established themselves in the Bahamas. When I asked him to describe his experience in Haiti, I was shocked to hear him say, “It was wonderful.” As it turns out, most of the Bahamian-born Haitians I spoke with, who had visited or lived in Haiti, describe their homeland as a utopia. As another interviewee, Junior put it, “Haitians paint a picture of Haiti that will blow your mind. They are so patriotic it brings tears to my eyes.” Evence explained, “People always talk crazy about Haiti but when I was there I had the time of my life. We had maids. When we woke up we had hot cocoa, with bananas with peanut butter. My seven years in Haiti were pure bliss.”
One of the reasons Haitians describe their homeland in this way is because the American/Bahamian dollar goes a long way in Haiti; as Hermanette said, “Ten dollars is like gold down there.” So although there may be fewer opportunities in Haiti, Bahamian-born children who were sent to Haiti to live with relatives experienced a higher standard of living than they would have in The Bahamas. Karin, another young Haitian woman with whom I spoke, particularly enjoyed the simple, carefree way of life she experienced as a child living in Haiti. She fondly described making her own dolls and eating fresh fruit off the trees.  The biggest reason those who spent part of their childhood in Haiti associate it with positive memories is that even though the overall standard of living and potential for future opportunities is lower in Haiti, they did not experience oppression and abuse there like they do in the Bahamas.
 Their idealization of life in Haiti may also makes it easier for them to cope with anti-Haitian sentiment, by developing a sense of pride for their homeland, instead of feeling at a disadvantage because of their heritage. This sense of pride and idealization of the homeland is not unlike the way slaves and descendants of slaves throughout the Caribbean and the Americas thought of Africa as their “motherland” (Mintz and Price 1976).
Most Haitians come to The Bahamas because they can find work, which pays better than any job they could find in Haiti. Evence explained,
The Haitians do a lot of the lowly work. It gives us a stigma. They feel that Haitians are not really worth much more than anything else because of the type of work that we do. But it’s not because Haitians cannot do anything else it’s just that that’s what jobs are offered to them here. If a Haitian comes out of Haiti he is more than happy to do any type of work. Any yard you see properly maintained, I can guarantee you a Haitian had a hand in it.

According to the results from the 2005 report on Haitian migration in the Bahamas by the College of the Bahamas, the government is purposely lax about enforcing its immigration laws and deporting Haitians because of the need for cheap unskilled and semiskilled labor, which is ironic because at the same time they are denying and/or delaying citizenship for the children of these laborers .
Evence attended a public primary school in Marsh Harbor where he was one of many Haitian students. He explained that in primary school the kids would insult him by asking him, 
‘You’s a Haitian, eh?’ like a Haitian was a plague. So if they want to insult you, they ask you if you was a Haitian just to disrespect you. I honestly didn’t see the bad thing in being a Haitian but they felt like it was a bad thing. It’s simply because their parents feel the Haitians are invading the Bahamas.

Evence explained that he experienced even worse discrimination in high school. He attended Wesley College, a private Catholic school, where he was one of the only students of Haitian parentage. Thinking back on his high school years, he smiled and said,
Let me tell you if you want to hear discrimination, that school was a wonderful school, but these kids had no appreciation for anyone of Haitian heritage. I mean they used to make fun of me like you wouldn’t believe. Because they didn’t understand you know, kids. It was fun though, I enjoyed it.

Evence had an amazing way of turning every negative aspect of being born to Haitian parents to a positive experience, which, in his words, “built character in me.” All of the second-generation Haitians I interviewed had similar experiences in school.
Hermanette Jean-Noel, my second interviewee, told me, “I think back sometimes about school and I cry but then I smile because I graduated 12th grade. Some of us are going off to school and coming back for summer breaks, that outweighs whether we were treated fairly or not.” Haitians in the Bahamas appreciate the value of education and are willing to put up with almost anything to obtain it. I first met Hermanette while she was bartending at Sea Spray Marina on the south end of Elbow Cay.  She arrived late to the coffee shop, apologizing because she had forgotten when we set up our appointment.  It was the first day of school for the semester and she had just dropped her children off at the ferry to Marsh Harbor. She had high cheekbones, perfectly styled hair, glossy lips and looked very put-together despite her stressful morning.
Hermanette does not believe that Haitian “culture” will ever be accepted in the Bahamas. She explained, “In reality, regardless if they give me Bahamian citizenship, I am still a Haitian to most Bahamians, that’s the sad part. Because where ever I go my last name is Jean-Noel; there is no other Bahamian with that last name.” She complained about how expensive and complicated the citizenship application process is saying,
I wish they could change the laws so that anybody born in the Bahamas, I don’t care if you’re Haitian, Jamaican, you should automatically be a Bahamian citizen….And you pay so much money to apply for citizenship because your parents don’t come here with any documentation so you have to send to Haiti to get those documents available to you. Then you have to pay money to get them copied and certified and translated. It’s a lot of work.

It is common for Bahamians to give birth in the United States so that their children can have dual citizenship. Four of the people I interviewed pointed out that it is ironic that Bahamians often have children in the United States and accept both a Bahamian and American passport, yet the Bahamian government denies automatic citizenship to people born in the Bahamas who have no other citizenship. According to Bahamian Law a person born outside the Bahamas to a married Bahamian male is entitled to automatic citizenship. However, a person born outside of the Bahamas to a married Bahamian female can apply for citizenship, but is not entitled to automatic citizenship if the father does not have Bahaman citizenship. A person born to an unmarried Bahamian female is guaranteed citizenship whether they are born in the country or not.[18] Many of the people I have interviewed have pointed out this sexism in the Legal system and concluded that if the Bahamas are unwilling to easily grant automatic citizenship to children of Bahamian women, it is unlikely they will change their laws to grant automatic citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.

Marsh Harbor

After two weeks of conducting interviews in Hopetown I took my first of four trips to Marsh Harbor where I met with Roscoe Thompson, the Township Chairman, Miss Evence of the Social Services Department, and Bonita, a nurse at Abaco General Clinic. During these interviews we primarily discussed the conditions of Pigeon Pea and the Mud communities; however I did not actually get to spend time in these communities until I met Ronale, a resident of the Peas, during my last trip to Marsh Harbor. Therefore, I will begin this section of my paper by introducing Ronal and by painting a picture of the Peas and Mud. I will then introduce the other characters mentioned above who all play a role in these communities and have strong opinions about what needs to change. All of the people I interviewed in Marsh harbor expressed concern for the treatment of children in these communities and worry about the fate of the future generation of Haitian-Bahamians.
I was introduced to Ronale though a fortuitous chain of events. During my last few days in Hope Town, I bumped into the father of a friend of mine who was sailing around The Bahamas on his boat. He asked why I was walking out of the police station at ten in the morning and I explained that I had been conducting an interview for my thesis. As I began to explain my project to him he lit up and said, “You have to meet this guy Ronale!” He told me that Ronale is the Dock Master at Mangos Marina in Marsh Harbor and that he would be a great person to interview. I happened to be making my last trips to Marsh Harbor the next day and assured him that I would stop by Mangos.
When I stepped off the ferry in Marsh Harbor, I walked about a quarter mile to the rental car agency. The palm trees and vibrantly colored flowers which lined the streets contrasted with the gray sky on this abnormally cool day. After filling out a small amount paperwork for a rental car I mentioned to the white Bahamian woman who worked there that I was planning going to walk through the Peas and Mud communities. She was shocked and exclaimed “I wouldn’t do that in a million years! It’s not safe at all! You must be crazy!” Thankfully I disregarded her advice. I was grateful to receive a peaceful, informative tour, guided by Ronale, and even felt comfortable enough to return later in the day, by myself, to talk with more local residents.

Pigeon Pea and The Mud

Although I had a list of people whom I thought would be more important to interview, I fortunately decided to take Philip’s father’s advice and go to Mangos Marina first, since it was close to the ferry.  Ronale was dressed in crisp khaki pants with a white collar popping out of the top of his dark blue nautical coat. Philip’s dad had informed him by radio that I might be stopping by. Ronale was working at the time but agreed to take a few minutes to talk to me. He later admitted that he was expecting a woman of Haitian descent and was surprised when a white woman walked into his office. Ronale seemed very excited that I was interested in the Haitian population in the Bahamas and was eager to tell me his story. We sat under a gazebo on the dock and talked for over an hour.
Ronale Pierre grew up in the Peas but moved to Miami after graduating high school where lived for 18 years. Ronale moved back to Marsh Harbor in May 2010. He admitted that he is one of the only Bahamian he knows who has willingly decided to move back to the Bahamas after living in the US.
When Ronale was born there were only three houses in Pigeon Pea; now there are over 100.  He explained that “the Peas and the Mud used to be one small community surrounded by bushes….That’s what I used to say, I live in the bushes.” Since he left, the size of the Peas and Mud has dramatically increased and the living conditions have deteriorated proportionally. Ronale said, “When I first came back here I was disgusted and angry. I was upset at the people by the way they were living.” Instead of disassociating himself from the disheveled community to which he once belonged to and moving back to Miami or living elsewhere on Abaco, Ronale decided to move back to the Peas. He has a well-paid job as dock master, has Bahamian citizenship, and could afford to live in a much nicer part of town.  However, he believed that he would not be able to help his fellow Haitian comunity unless he lived among them and experienced life as they do. Ronale trasformed his feelings of anger and disgust into feelings of empathy and compassion and has been singlehandedly working to better the Haitian community in the Peas and the Mud.
Even though it meant taking a break from work, Ronale was more than willing to give me a tour of the Peas and Mud. Pigeon Pea (which residents refer to as “The Peas”), the older of the two settlements is located behind the homes of a local Bahamian farmer who has a field of pigeon peas. Pigeon Pea trees are short bush-like trees with lime green leaves. In the winter the Pigeon Pea trees are in bloom with tiny yellow flowers. These peas have always been a staple of the Bahamian diet. The larger adjacent Haitian settlement, the Mud, was named appropriately for the land is filled with muddy soil from the dredging of the harbor and was deemed too marshy for Bahamians to make use of. Although it was clear that these two communities were overcrowded and poverty stricken I found them to be much cleaner and safer than I had been warned to expect.
The Peas and The Mud are made up of clusters of closely packed, tiny, one-story plywood houses. Between the houses crisscrossed wires and pipes lie in the muddy dirt paths, dotted with bottle caps and trash. There is one road ambiguously separating the Peas from the Mud. An outsider would never know he or she had entered a separate community by crossing the road. At the time I was there, there was no running water or public electricity in the Peas or the Mud, posing major health and safety concerns for the community at large. Although no accurate account of the number of Haitians living in the Peas and Mud is available, most estimates range upwards of 2,000 people; however Mr. Thompson, the township chairman of Marsh Harbor, estimated the population of the two communities to be “close to 6,000 Haitians.”
Pigeon Pea is on private property and the Mud is on Crown (government-owned) land.  All of the houses in these communities have been numbered and residents have been told that no more houses may be built. There are about 140 houses in the Peas and about 200 in the Mud. Each of them is home to four to six Haitians or Haitian-Bahamians. According to Ronale, about 40 percent of the population of these communities are legal or permanent residents. The other 60 percent are temporary residents on their way to America, or  “just-comes” as they are called. Ronale pointed out that this lack of a sense of permanence contributes to the unwillingness of the resident to clean up the area in which they live and to make the best of their current situation.
Ronale was very critical of the mentality of the residents of the Peas and Mud communities. He was not the first to mention that Haitian nationals do not work together and described their way of life as minimalist with an “every man for himself”, “dog eat dog” mentality. He explained that oppression has taught us how to oppress each other.” Ronale believes that the “only way to get out of the bottom of the barrel is to work together.”
            The first spot we stopped at on my tour through the Peas was the one red water pump that Ronale used to get water from as a small child. A tall Sapodilla tree shaded the pump and the surrounding area. Next to the pump was a newly built, unpainted, plywood shack where a man served beer and affordable meals at certain times of the day. This red pump, along with one or two others, now serves as the only source of water for the entire community of at least 2,000 people. Ronale explained that, at one point, the government provided water to one or two homes and these people pumped water to the rest of the community for profit; however, they did not charge enough to pay the bill so the water was shut off. The lack of running water is both a fire hazard and a sanitation issue. Ronale has tried talking to local authorities to see if they will address the issue soon but they still have done nothing about it. Mr. Thompson, the Township Chairman said that he has suggested providing water to the Peas and Mud, but the community of Marsh Harbor does not want to spend money on the Haitians who they believe are already putting a strain on the educational, social, and medical resources.
            Electricity is a similar issue. A few people with electricity provided power to all the other homes but they could not pay the bill so the Bahamas Electric Company (BEC) cut off the power supply two months ago. The ground between the houses in the peas is covered with power lines. which are an extreme safety hazard, especially when it rains. The only power comes from a few small generators and people light their homes with kerosene lamps and candles. There has recently been a devastating fire in a Haitian neighborhood in Nassau and many people fear a similar fire could easily destroy the Peas and Mud. The potential for a disastrous fire is huge because the hundreds of wooden houses are only feet apart and most of the community cannot even be accessed by a fire truck.

Concern for the Children

            While the lack of running Water and power are major concerns for Ronale he is most concerned for the children who are raised in the Peas and Mud.  Having volunteered as a physical education teacher for six years in Florida Ronal claims he knows what kids need. In the peas and the Mud “there is no place for the kids to play,” He describes leaving for school as “as leaving the concentration camp.” Ronal admitted that the saddest kid in the Peas is probably his own Nephew, whose alcoholic mother is a “splitting image” of Ronale’s mother. Tears came to his eyes has he recalled his his five year nephew coming over to his mother’s house having been beaten so bad that when they offered him a meal he said “he was too hungry to eat.”  A stranger once told Ronale that his nephew had the “saddest eyes he’d ever seen.”
Many if not most of the children living in the Peas and the Mud have single parents and thus grow up with no knowledge of a conventional family structure. These boys and girls do not have fathers to act as good role models. According to Ronale, “Men in the islands look at woman for one thing. They are not looking for a relationship and family.” This mentality is a particular problem for young attractive Haitian women who have just arrived from Haiti. These “just-comes,” are unaware of the “cowboy mentality” in the Peas and Mud. Ronale explained that theses women often end up in relationships with men who are just looking for sex and who abandon the woman once she become pregnant. He further mentioned that some women living in the Peas and Mud do not even know who the father of her child is.
When I asked about contraceptive use among the Haitian population, Ronale explained that these immigrants come from Haiti with no knowledge of sexual education. He said that a box of condoms probably costs around $6 and most Haitian men would rather spend that money on food. When I inquired about what sexual education is offered in the Marsh Harbor public schools, which these Haitian children attend, he told me, “The mentality is, if they don’t talk about it, it means they won’t do it, instead of educating them.” He stressed that there is a need for a change in attitude about sexual education throughout the Bahamas, and especially in places like Peas and Mud where many children grow up with a single parent and no one to teach them what is appropriate or to talk to about the sexual abuse trauma they experience.
Rape is also a huge problem in the Peas and Mud. Ronale told me that “there is no word for rape in Creole.” Many women are raped at a very young age and then are confused about what is sexually appropriate. Because there is no one to talk to about it, the feelings turn into anger which builds up inside them. Ronale mentioned that there is a particular problem with sexual abuse by pastors and ministers. He knows many young men who have been sexually abused by these “godly” people but were never allowed to talk about it. These suppressed memories emerge as anger or sadness later in life and often result in other forms of mental illness. As he put it “angry children grow up to be angry young men” contributing to the potential for violence in the community.  Stopping the sexual abuse of children is essential in preventing crime and changing the mentality of the Haitian-Bahamian community.
Miss Evence, a Bahamian employee at the Social Service Department in Marsh Harbor, shared a similar concern for the children of the Peas and the Mud. While I waited for over an hour to speak with Miss Evence, I informally interviewed the other Haitians and Bahamians who were waiting there as well. Our conversations were limited, however, owing to the fact that people of both nationalities present.  There was awkward tension in the air when I asked a Bahamian woman about how she felt about Haitian-Bahamians applying for citizenship. When my name was finally called, I met Miss Evence in her cubicle. Her round, milk-chocolate face glowed with a soft smile and empathetic eyes. She spent the first 10 minutes of our interview proudly outlining all the services the department performed before we began discussing issues directly pertaining to the Haitian community.
Miss Evence explained that, contrary to the stereotype, the Haitian community does not take advantage of most of the social services available to them, though “most of the child support clients are Haitian nationals.” She further mentioned that, “It has been a challenge to have the Haitian community realize that what they deem as acceptable, like having kids do physical menial labor instead of attending school, is not appropriate in the Bahamas.” Miss Evence also complained, as did Ronale, about the lack of sexual education among this population, and mentioned that “many Haitian children are sexually active from the age of 11.” Because of the poor financial situation, some children perform sexual services for money.  She added that, “people in the Mud and the Peas are in such a bad financial situation that there is a lot of what I would call slavery. They sell their children to be sex slaves. Some young women dance in clubs at the age of 12.” How often this type of abuse actually occurs is unknown, but it is certainly a concern that the Bahamas Department of Social Services is working to address.
A rough childhood combined with a lack of ability to obtain Bahamian citizenship is mentally and physically preventing these Haitian-Bahamians from reaching higher goals. Bahamian discrimination against Haitians, even if their irritation is justifiable, only makes the situation worse. The fact is, there is a large population of Haitians in the Bahamas and they are not about to go anywhere. It is in the best interest of the Bahamian people to work with the Haitian communities to teach them their culture and ways of life and to help assimilate them into society.

Local Government


Mr. Thompson, the Chairman of the Township of Marsh Harbor, also acknowledged the concern for the children of the Peas and Mud and the hazardous, unsanitary living conditions of that community. However, he sees the biggest issue to be the “control of illegals.” Mr. Thompson is a short, energetic, white Bahamian with many suggestions about how to improve the Peas and Mud communities and how to better regulate the influx of illegals.  He says the root of the problem is that,
Local government over here has no authority to do anything about it because if I did have the authority it would have been done a long time ago or started to…It’s up to central government and they don’t want to do anything about it.

 When I asked if the central government is planning to do anything about the Haitian problem, he replied that it is a very sensitive issue that both parties have chosen to avoid. The local government of Marsh Harbor has succeeded in removing 110 abandoned vehicles out of Peas and Mud. They have also filled in access roads so the ambulance and fire department can have limited access into the Mud; however, the fill is mostly washed out now.
“You know you have a problem with Haitian immigrants when you look at your government school system and you got a 60-40 split in high school and a 70-30 split in central primary” exclaimed Mr. Thompson. Despite his negative comments about Haitian culture, and their standard of living, his stance on the issue of citizenship was surprisingly similar to that of the Haitians and Haitian-Bahamans I spoke with. He stated, “If they are born here, raised here and have a job here, they are Bahamian.” With a hopeless shrug he admitted that “the laws haven’t changed in  20 years and probably won’t.”
Although he is in favor of changing the citizenship laws so that Haitians born in the Bahamas can obtain citizenship more easily, Mr. Thompson’s greatest concern is the “control of illegals.” He said that a lot of them right now are in limbo. I cannot deny you that, but there are a lot of them here who are here illegally and shouldn’t be here.” The general government supposedly conducts raids twice a year to deport those Haitians who do not have proper documentation, but Mr. Thompson described the raids as “a joke,” commenting that the Haitians seem to find out about the raids before the local Bahamian officials do, and those without work permits or citizenship hide in the bushes. Many of my interviewees and even newspaper reports also commented that the raids are “inhumane.” As Thompson claimed, the immigration officials arrive with machetes and guns, are extremely abusive, and often steal stashes of money they find while searching homes, stashes that exist since most Haitians do not have bank accounts. His response to my inquiry about the role of the Bahaman Defense Force was, “I can’t say what the Defense Force is doing. I get depressed enough dealing with my own township over here.”
 Mr. Thompson mentioned that, “after the earthquake [the Bahamian Government] could have done something beautiful and issued every Haitian citizenship or work permits and then closed the doors.” In hindsight, this may have been a good solution, but, since the earthquake, the numbers of Haitians migrating to the Bahamas has increased dramatically. Thompson proposed that Haitians born in the Bahamians be integrated into society and automatically issued Bahaman passports.
In May 2010, Ricky Albury, rightful owner of the five-acre Pigeon Pea property, gave eviction notices to 1,500 Haitians living on his land. Mr. Thompson seemed surprised and aggravated that this news went worldwide. His concern about the publication of such an event caused me to wonder if one of the reasons the government has been so reluctant to take more dramatic steps to deport Haitians is that it gives the country a bad public image, especially since empathy for Haitians has increased internationally in the aftermath of the earthquake and other natural disasters which have recently ravaged the country. Such reports may hurt tourism, the Bahamas biggest industry.[19] Mr. Thompson also mentioned that most local crime originates in the Peas and Mud. There is considerable concern that an increase in crime or a potential violent Haitian-Bahamian uprising could also affect the Bahaman public image and their tourism industry. However, as other interviewees expressed, if children of Haitian parentage continue to grow up in poverty, with poor role models, facing demoralizing discrimination by their Bahamian peers, a more  angry, violent future generation is inevitable.

Hope for Unity

Junior, a Haitian-Bahamian man who I interviewed in Hope Town before spending time in Marsh Harbor, was not only concerned about the fate of the future generation of Haitian-Bahamians, but also provided a potential solution to the problem. Junior, a jolly man with a big round belly, was one of the older, more established people whom I interviewed. He is the manager of Sea Spray Marina, the largest marina on Elbow Cay, with a lovely dockside Bar and restaurant. Junior greets everyone with a big smile and an undeniable air of respect. He has lived in Hope Town his whole life.  His parents emigrated from Haiti in the mid 1960’s. Junior had no difficulty obtaining Bahamian citizenship because both his parents were already Bahamian citizens. According to Bahamas law, Haitians living in the Bahamas prior to its independence in 1973, were automatically granted citizenship. Junior was extremely enthusiastic to talk to me. He later admitted that he is planning to go into politics one day to help unite the Haitian-Bahamian community so that they can fight for the rights they deserve. During our two-hour conversation he gave me a detailed description of Bahamian history and his opinion on current issues relating to Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas.
Junior compared the current racism between Haitians and Bahamians to that of blacks and whites in the Bahamas that prevailed from the introduction of the plantation economy in the 1800’s until the revolution led by Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling in the 1960’s.  Junior told me that
One man, the son of a Jamaican man and a Bahamian lady, his name was Lynden Oscar Pindling, was so well educated. Went to law school in England and came back and started a revolution. He started the PLP. He came back and basically took the country and said, in a nutshell, it should be a majority rule not minority rule. He just did some things of epic proportions.

Junior believed Pindling to be the most important man in Bahamian history. He made a point of ensuring that I knew more about him because Pindling is exactly the type of person needed to unite Haitian nationals and their descendants currently living in the Bahamas.
According to Junior’s account, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling was born in Nassau in 1930, during a time when blacks outnumbered whites in the Bahamas three to one, but the country was under white minority rule and was basically controlled by a group in Nassau called the “Bay Street Boys.” Pindling attended Bahamas Government High School and received his law degree from London University in 1952. Junior pointed out the interesting correlation between the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s and the Bahamian revolution. One can draw similar parallels between the “Haitian problem” in the Bahamas and the “Mexican problem” in America today. Both countries are dealing with a large influx of migrants seeking employment and education for their children and ultimately citizenship.
After doing more research on Pindling, I found that he was considered to be a “’middle class hero.’ His academic and professional credentials, not membership of a particular union, granted him entrance into the political world” (Craton 2002: 63). Pindling led the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), representing the interests of the black majority in the Bahamas, from 1956 until his retirement in 1997. He was elected the first Prime Minster of the Bahamas in 1967. On July 10th, 1973 he succeeded in leading the country to its independence from Great Britain. Pindling was reelected five times. During his colorful political career, he steered the country into a long period of economic growth by encouraging access to public education, foreign investment, international banking and tourism.[20]He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1983.
After giving me an elaborate account of Bahamian history, focused on the accomplishments of Pindling, Junior exclaimed, “So that guy was like my hero! He was able to silently, without any bloodshed, revolutionize the country. It was a silent revolution. He made it an equal playing field for all Bahamians, black and white.” According to Junior, this is the kind of revolution that needs to occur for Bahamians of Haitian ancestry to be fairly represented in government today and be granted opportunities equal to those of their Bahamian peers.
 Junior admitted that
Somewhere along the line, and I’ve always said this to my young Bahamian-Haitian colleagues, if I had the time to devote to it, I would say we start a Bahamian-Haitian society or movement. If you travel the length and breath of the Bahamas, cause you’ll find a Haitian on every rock in this country, and say, ‘Look, contribute five dollars, become a member, and we’re going to fight for your rights.’ It would greatly empower the Haitian community.

When I interviewed Junior I had not yet met Ronale. During my interview with Ronale, I realized that he is the young charismatic leader of Junior’s dreams; someone who was raised in the Pigeon Pea settlement, educated in the United States, and who returned to the Bahamas after eighteen years of living in Miami with the intention of raising the people of his community out of poverty and becoming the first Haitian-Bahamian prime minister. What Ronale may lack in academic prestige he makes up for with his truly altruistic drive for success and his devotion to serving the Haitian-Bahamian community.
As Ronale said “children are our future and if we treat out children like crap, our future is crap.” These children, with or without passports, are essentially Bahamian. Whether their parents are legal or illegal they will grow up in the Bahamas and it is thus in the best interest of the Bahamas to give these children equal rights and opportunities. One of the things Ronale has done already for his community started a weekly event he calls, “Feeding the Children,” where he takes a portion of his pay check each week and hosts a barbeque for the kids in the Pigeon Peas and Mud. Besides this paper, there is nothing written recently on the conditions of the Peas and the Mud, and most people, even in Marsh Harbor, do not realize the extent to which these children are being abused and oppressed.
Both Ronale and Junior expressed the need for people of Haitian descent to get involved in the Bahamian government, to represent the ever growing population of Haitians born in the Bahamas. However, oppression is so bad in some Haitian communities in the Bahamas that the idea of ever having representation in the government has never crossed their minds. For example, one day in the Peas, Ronale asked ten children who walked by “Do you think you could ever be prime minister of the Bahamas.” They all said “No” except one kid. With a glimmer of hope Ronale asked that child “What’s a prime minister?” The child replied “I don’t know” and kept on walking.
When I went back to the Peas, unaccompanied by Ronale, I spoke with a group of men playing dominos, a national pastime, in the shack next to the red water pump. I questioned them about the citizenship laws as they slapped dominos on the table, alternately engaged with me and with their game. None of the five men, who looked to be in their 20s and 30s, had Bahamian citizenship. Some of them have applied for it and are still waiting while a couple others missed the one-year window of opportunity. I asked them “do you feel restricted by not having a Bahaman passport and thus not being able to exercise the basic rights of citizenship?” One of the more talkative men, who had a row of clothes pins stuck on his arm, explained to me that it is like being a dog stuck in a cage.  “If you don’t let the dog out of the cage he doesn’t even know what the outside world is like, so it don’t matter. That’s how we are. Stuck in the Peas and Mud. We don’t know anything else.” This analogy hit me harder than any other statement about Haitian-Bahaman discrimination I had heard my entire time in the Bahamas.

Conclusion

Although living with the fear of deportation or with constant discrimination is not an ideal lifestyle, most Haitian-Bahamians are appreciative of the opportunity to live in the Bahamas and they do their best to take advantage of it. The fact that it costs up to $3,000 to get to the Bahamas from Haiti and requires risking one’s life and leaving everything behind means that those who do arrive on the shores of the Bahamas are driven and motivated to pursue a better life and to provide more opportunities for their children. Haitians who make it out of Haiti are the “cream of the crop.”  They are often wealthier and more educated compared to those they left behind. They are perhaps more driven than many Bahamians who do not appreciate their place of birth and do not value education because it is thought of as a right and not a privilege. In a way, Bahamians are lucky to at least have positively motivated people coming into their country.
Having spent at least a quarter of my life in the Bahamas, I have come to greatly appreciate Bahamian culture. I love the Bahamian accent, their laidback way of life, and their positive, friendly attitudes. I can understand the concern local Bahamians, both black and white, have with their country being occupied by an ever increasing number of people with a totally different culture, language and way of life. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and College of the Bahamas (COB) 2005 report on Haitian Migrants in the Bahamas “Haitian nationals have little education and poor English language skills….and are poorly integrated into Bahamian society”(COB Report 2005: 4). Bahamians are concerned that the Haitians are taking away jobs, putting strains on the social, medical, and education services, and interrupting the normal flow of life. However, what my interviewees refer to as “negative aspects of Haitian culture” are not actually how Haitians prefer to live but are a result of generations of living in survival mode, subjected to conditions of abject poverty.
If Haitians made more of an effort to work together, if the Bahamian community became more accepting and less oppressive, and if the government began treating all immigrants more humanely and providing those born in the Bahamas with citizenship,  Haitian residents might be able to raise their standard of living to a way of life “more acceptable” to their Bahaman peers. In an article for the Bahamas Pundit, Larry Smith suggests that “unless Bahamians want to become Haitianized, our goal should be assimilation of migrants within the Bahamian culture. But the IOM (International Organization for Migration) says this ‘is based on the expected outcome of full citizenship, and sharing the common civic values with the native population.’” It is also in the best interest of the Bahamas to give citizenship to these educated, Bahamian-born Haitians because, currently, most Haitian-Bahamians who further their education in the States and become doctors or lawyers and even professional athletes, feel no connection to the Bahamas and choose not to return, causing a “brain drain.”
In order to better assimilate Haitians into Bahamian society they must first grant those who were born in the Bahamas, and have lived there until they are 18, automatic citizenship. The second step is ensure that the children, whose future all Bahamians depend on, are raised in a more nurturing, safe, less abusive environment.  This requires a combination of Haitians working together to improve their living situation and the Bahamian community providing positive role models instead of as oppressive authorities. Children born in the Bahamas, to legal or illegal Haitian immigrants, are there to stay, whether the government chooses to acknowledge them as Bahamians or not. Thus it is in the best interest of the Bahamas, as a nation, to accept these individuals into their society so that the future generation is one of intelligent, motivated, content Bahamians of Haitian descent, instead of angry, hopeless, oppressed and potentially stateless people.


















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Appendix I: Bahamian Immigration Laws

From: http://laws.bahamas.gov.bs/subsidiary/subsidiary_CHAPTER_190.html
CHAPTER 190
THE BAHAMAS NATIONALITY
ARRANGEMENT OF SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION
SECTION 19
                            The Bahamas Nationality Regulations.

CHAPTER 190
THE BAHAMAS NATIONALITY
THE BAHAMAS NATIONALITY REGULATIONS

S.I. 67/1973
S.I. 62/1975
S.I. 35/1981
(SECTION 19)
[Commencement 31st August, 1973]
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Bahamas Nationality Regulations.
Title.
2. For the purpose of these Regulations, "the Act" means The Bahamas Nationality Act.
Interpretation.
PART I
CITIZENSHIP BY REGISTRATION
3. (1) An application by a woman for registration as a citizen of The Bahamas under paragraph (1) or (5) of Article 5 or under Article 10 of the Constitution shall be made to the Minister in Form 1 in the First Schedule.
Application forms for registration under the Constitution.
(2) In the case where the applicant is an alien or a British protected person, such applicant shall take the oath of allegiance required to be taken by the provisions of the Constitution referred to in paragraph (1) of this regulation.
(3) In the case where the applicant is a Commonwealth citizen, such applicant shall make the declaration in Form 16 in the First Schedule.
(4) Such oath of allegiance or declaration shall be subscribed or made before a justice of the peace or other person referred to in regulation 23 who shall attest the same.
(5) An application for registration as a citizen of The Bahamas under paragraph (2) of Article 5 or under Article 7 or Article 9 of the Constitution shall be made to the Minister in Form 2 in the First Schedule.
4. (1) An application for registration as a citizen of The Bahamas under section 5 of the Act shall be made to the Minister in Form 3 in the First Schedule.
Application form for registration under the Act.
(2) An applicant for registration as a citizen of The Bahamas under section 5 of the Act-
(a)
shall publish in two separate issues of the Gazette and in two separate issues of one other newspaper circulating in The Bahamas with an interval of not less than six days between the first and second publication in each case a notice of intention in Form 7 in the First Schedule;
(b)
shall if he is not a Commonwealth citizen, take the oath of allegiance required by section 5 of the Act to be taken.
5. An application for the registration of a minor child of a citizen of The Bahamas as a citizen of The Bahamas under subsection (1) of section 6 of the Act shall be made to the Minister in Form 4 in the First Schedule.
Application form for registration of minors.
6. A certificate of registration as a citizen of The Bahamas issued under section 5, 6 or 7 of the Act shall be in Form 5 in the First Schedule.
Certificate of registration.
PART II
NATURALISATION
7. (1) An application for a certificate of naturalisation under section 9 of the Act shall be made to the Minister in Form 6 in the First Schedule.
Application form for naturalisation.
(2) An applicant for a certificate of naturalisation under section 9 of the Act shall publish in two separate issues of the Gazette and in two separate issues of one other newspaper circulating in The Bahamas with an interval of not less than six days between the first and second publication in each case, a notice of intention in Form 7 in the First Schedule.
8. A certificate of naturalisation granted by the Minister under section 9 of the Act shall be in Form 8 in the First Schedule and shall be signed by the Minister or by a person authorised by him in that behalf.
Certificate of naturalisation.
9. (1) The oath of allegiance required by section 9 of the Act to be taken by a person to whom a certificate of naturalisation has been granted shall be endorsed on the certificate of naturalisation to which it relates.
Oath of allegiance.
(2) The oath of allegiance required as aforesaid shall be registered at the office of the Minister.
PART III
RENUNCIATION, DEPRIVATION AND DISCLAIMER OF CITIZENSHIP
10. (1) A declaration of renunciation of citizenship of The Bahamas made under section 10 of the Act shall be in Form 9 in the First Schedule.
Renunciation of citizenship.
(2) The Minister may issue an acknowledgement of renunciation of citizenship of The Bahamas and such acknowledgement shall be in Form 10 in the First Schedule.
(3) The declaration shall, subject to the provisions of the said section 10, be registered in the office of the Minister.
11. (1) When it is proposed to make an order under section 11 or 12 of the Act depriving a person of his citizenship of The Bahamas, the notice required by subsection (5) of section 11 or by subsection (2) of section 12 thereof to be given to that person may be given-
Procedure in deprivation cases.
(a)
in the case where that person's whereabouts are known, by causing the notice to be delivered to him, personally or by sending it to him by registered post;
(b)
in the case where that person's whereabouts are not known, by sending it by registered post to his last known address.
(2) Where the Minister has given notice in accordance with the provisions of this regulation and the person to whom it is given has the right on making application therefor, to an enquiry under section 11 or 12 of the Act, the application shall be made-
(a)
if that person is in The Bahamas at the time when the notice is given to him, within 21 days from the giving of the notice;
(b)
in any other case, within such time, not being less than 21 days from the giving of the notice, as the Minister may determine:
Provided that the Minister may in special circumstances at any time extend the time within which the application may be made.
(3) Any notice given in accordance with the provisions of this regulation shall, in a case in which the person to whom it is given has the right, on making application therefor, to an enquiry under subsection (6) of section 11 or subsection (2) of section 12 of the Act include a statement of time within which such application must be made.
12. Where an order has been made depriving a person who is a citizen of The Bahamas by registration or naturalisation, of his citizenship, his name shall be removed from the register of citizens of The Bahamas in which it is entered.
Removal of names from register.
13. Where an order has been made depriving a person registered or naturalised in The Bahamas of his citizenship of The Bahamas, the person so deprived or any other person in possession of the relevant certificate of registration or naturalisation shall, if required by notice in writing given by the Minister deliver up such certificate to the Minister within such time as may be specified in the notice, and such certificate shall thereupon be cancelled or amended.
Delivery of void certificates.
14. (1) A disclaimer of citizenship of The Bahamas made under section 13 of the Act shall be in Form 11 in the First Schedule.
Form of disclaimer and lodgement.
(2) Every such disclaimer shall be lodged in the office of the Minister in duplicate and one copy shall be stamped with the date of the lodgement in acknowledgement of the same and filed and registered for record and the other copy shall be likewise stamped and returned to the person lodging the same.
PART IV
SUPPLEMENTAL
15. Where a person wishes to make an application or declaration under any of these Regulations and the form referred to in the regulation is, in the opinion of the Minister, unsuitable to the particular case, the Minister may authorise the application or declaration being made in some other form.
Variation of forms.
16. An application for a certificate of citizenship in case of doubt made under section 14 of the Act shall be in Form 12 in the First Schedule.
Application for certificate in cases of doubt.
17. An application for a certificate of citizenship of The Bahamas made under section 15 of the Act shall be in Form 13 in the First Schedule and the declaration contained in such form shall be fully completed and subscribed before such application is filed.
Application for certificate in special cases.
18. A certificate of citizenship of The Bahamas issued under section 14 or 15 of the Act shall be in Form 14 in the First Schedule.
Certificate of citizenship.
19. A certificate-
Signature of certificates.
(a)
of registration as a citizen of The Bahamas issued under section 5, 6 or 7 of the Act; or
(b)
of citizenship of The Bahamas issued under section 14 or 15 of the Act,
shall be signed by the Minister or by a person authorised by him in that behalf.
20. (1) The Minister may require any application made in accordance with these Regulations and any chain made in such application to be supported by such documentary or other evidence as he may from time to time determine.
Supporting evidence.
(2) Without prejudice to subsection (1), every applicant for-
(a)
a certificate of naturalisation; or
(b)
a certification of registration as a citizen of The Bahamas,
under these Regulations shall attach to his application two prints of a recent full face photograph of himself not more than three inches long and three inches wide nor less than two inches long and two inches wide, endorsed on the reverse side thereof with his signature, and any certificate or certification, as the case may be, issued by the Minister in pursuance of such application shall have embossed upon it one of those prints.
21. The declaration which may be made by a person who is required by any provision of the Constitution or the Act to renounce his citizenship of a country other than The Bahamas but who is not permitted to do so by the law of that country, shall be in Form 15 in the First Schedule.
Declaration concerning other citizenship.
22. The declaration set out in Form 16 of the First Schedule is prescribed for the purposes of Article 5(1), 5(5) or 10 of the Constitution.
Declaration to be made in certain cases.
23. An application or declaration made in accordance with regulation 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 16 or 17 of these Regulations shall not be accepted or registered, and the oath of allegiance required by Chapter II of the Constitution and sections 5 and 9 of the Act shall be of no effect unless it is signed in the presence of or administered by one of the following persons-
Persons authorised to attest oaths, declarations, etc.
(a)
in The Bahamas - any justice of the peace or notary public or any person authorised to administer oaths;
(b)
elsewhere - any consular officer of the Government of The Bahamas or any consular officer of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom acting on behalf of the Government of The Bahamas of, if there is no such consular officer, any person authorised by the Government of The Bahamas in that behalf, or any person for the time being authorised by law, in the place where the applicant, declarant or deponent is, to administer an oath for any judicial or other legal purposes.
24. (1) Subject to the provisions of this regulation the fees specified in the Second Schedule may in The Bahamas be taken and shall be applied in the manner set out in the said Schedule.
Fees.
(2) Of the fee payable in respect of the grant of a certificate of naturalisation, twenty dollars shall be payable on the submission of the application for a certificate and shall in no circumstances be returned, and the balance shall be payable on the receipt of the decision to grant a certificate:
Provided that where a husband and wife apply at the same time for certificates and are residing together at the time of the applications and the balance is paid in respect of the grant of a certificate to one of them, no balance shall be payable in respect of the grant of a certificate to the other.
25. (1) For the purposes of these Regulations there shall be established and maintained in the office of the Minister registers; and all matters required by the Constitution, the Act or these Regulations to be registered shall be entered in the appropriate register.
Maintenance of registers.
(2) The Minister shall cause to be prepared a copy of all entries made during each month in each register maintained pursuant to paragraph (1) and every such copy, when certified by a person authorised by the Minister in that behalf to be true and correct, shall not later than thirty days after the end of the month to which it relates, be transmitted to the Registrar-General who shall cause the same to be registered in appropriate registers to be maintained for the purpose in the Department of The Registrar General.



















[1] I owe a special thanks to Peggy Thompson and Dielta for introducing me to the first few people I interviewed in Hope Town.
[2]  The College of The Bahamas 2005 Migration Report
[4]Roscoe Thompson, Chairman of the Township of Marsh Harbor
[8]Johnson, P., Ballance, V., Fielding, W., MacDonald, T., Scriven, C., & Stuart, D. (2005). Haitian migrants in the Bahamas: a report for the International Organization for Migration. Retrieved from http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/books/Haitian_Migrants_Report.pdf
[9](article for the Bahama  Pundit “the Haitian migration to the Bahamas 2005)
[10]In 2007, I wrote an extensive report on Haitian migration for a class called Blacks in the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. The subject of migration in the Caribbean has been a common thread throughout my Anthropological, Philosophical, and Sociological studies at Colorado College.
[12] Psychoanalyses: Cohort, Freud, John Riker
[13] http://www.bahamapundit.com/2005/09/the_haitian_mig.html
[16]http://www.bahamas.gov.bs/bahamasweb2/home.nsf/vContentW/IMMG--Citizenship/Naturalization--Citizenship!Opendocument for more information on the Bahamas Citizenship Laws please refer to Appendix 1
[17]The star Plantation was once a citrus farm on the North End of Abaco. When the citrus canker arrived in 2005 the plantation was shut down but many of the Haitian workers remain on the property living without running water or electricity.   http://www.bahamapundit.com/2010/04/chinese-farming-investment-on-abaco.html