Rafael Trujillo
Dominicans Created a Stigma That Made Discrimination Easier
Dominicans created a national identity that defined Dominicans as white, Catholic and culturally Hispanic, in stark contrast to Haitians whom they characterized as being black, voodoo practitioners and culturally African, according to Ernesto Sagás. Sociologist Erving Goffman argues that stigma allows us to dehumanize people and makes it easier for us to discriminate against them. Stigmatization has enabled Dominicans to subject Haitians to abuse for centuries.
Stripping ‘Irregular’ Migrants of Citizenship
On Sept. 23, 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic ruled that the children of “irregular” migrants born in the Dominican Republic after June 21, 1929, would be stripped of their Dominican citizenship. The ruling – which could render 250,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless – came as a result of a challenge by Juliana Deguis Pierre against the Dominican Electoral Board. The Electoral Board refused to issue Pierre an identification card. They argued that although she was born in the “national territory,” because she was the daughter of migrants in transit she did not have the right to Dominican citizenship. The decision also formalizes a process of exclusion, racism and harassment that had already construed Dominicans of Haitian descent as second-class citizens in their own country while marginalizing Haitian immigrants. In the two previous years, Haitian immigrants were the victims of demeaning raids and dragnets by the Dominican security forces, resulting in more than 47,000 undocumented Haitians being expelled from the country– more than twice the figure of 20,541 expelled during the previous year.
