Suchergebnisse

In 2020, analyses from multilateral institutions predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic would hamper remittance transfers to the Latin America and Caribbean region; yet they showed steady increases in 2020 and 2021. Haiti's remittance economy has largely maintained its vitality, helping families weather multiple crises. Drawing on data from a study of the impact of COVID-19 on Haitian households and remittance data from Haiti's Central Bank, this article examines Haiti's changing remittance landscape, with particular attention paid to new migratory flows to Latin America that have emerged since the January 2010 earthquake. Considering the increase in migration to Brazil and Chile, among other countries, between 2010 and 2020, we ask, what role have remittances from South America played in Haitian households leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic?

This article examines disaster preparedness and community responses to Hurricane Matthew in semi-urban and rural towns and villages in Grande-Anse, Haiti. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in the department of Grande-Anse one week after the hurricane made landfall in Haiti, the article focuses on the perspectives of citizens, community-based associations and local authorities in the affected areas. Sixty-three (63) interviews and 8 community meetings (focus groups) were conducted in 11 impacted sites in 8 communes. Results suggest that preexisting conditions in impacted communities, rather than deliberate and coordinated disaster management strategies, shaped levels of preparedness for and response to the disaster. Affected populations relied primarily on family networks and local forms of solidarity to attend to basic needs such as shelter, health and food. The main argument presented is that Haiti, by virtue of its geographic location, lack of resources, institutional fragility and vulnerability, must systematically integrate community-based assets and capacities in its responses to and management of disasters. Further, it is critical for the government, Haitian institutions, and society to apply integrated risk reduction and management and disaster preparedness measures in all aspects of life, if the country is to survive the many disasters to come in a time of climate change. These measures should be embedded in recovery and reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Matthew.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the context of the emergence of a skin infection outbreak in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti and detail the role of community-based participatory research in mobilizing local action in a country with low state capacity.Design/methodology/approachWhile implementing a post-disaster study that combined a survey of 984 households and 69 community leaders with 23 focus groups, 60 ethnographic interviews and community mapping, a skin infection outbreak was detected. Using study results, the research team in partnership with different stakeholders responded to the outbreak with a health intervention.FindingsThe findings illustrate how pre-existing conditions shape local communities' vulnerability to health crises in the aftermath of disasters and the critical role research can play in informing the recovery processes. Community-based approaches to emergency health reinforced by multi-stakeholder partnerships with local government can strengthen post-disaster response and governance structures setting the groundwork for the development of local resilience.Research limitations/implicationsThe health intervention was implemented as a result of the study. Patients served were not derived from the study sample but were self-selected based on their need for skin-related medical treatment.Originality/valueThis article highlights the integral role research can play in identifying the health impacts of disaster events in vulnerable, hard-to-reach communities and strengthening government involvement in disaster governance.

AbstractThe increasingly intractable nature of many social problems has given rise to cross‐institutional and interdisciplinary collaborations in order to respond to social problems that no single entity can resolve on its own. One value of anthropology lies in its capacity to provide culturally tailored strategies for successful collaboration between different stakeholders in communities, across disciplinary fields, among public policymakers and practitioners. In this article, we revisit the emergence of a collaborative initiative to support at‐risk youths of Haitian descent and their families. This work was undertaken by university researchers, juvenile justice professionals in Miami‐Dade County, and community‐based practitioners. Guided by a holistic anthropological perspective and a multidimensional approach to collaboration, we provide a processual analysis of almost two decades of opportunities and challenges posed by our collaboration and illuminate the importance of collaboration in identifying evidence‐based solutions to social problems. While not all collaborative teams experience the same processes or operate within the same sociocultural contexts, we argue that there are some fundamental principles to establishing effective collaboration: a shared common goal, shared objectives, and time.

With over three million Haitians living abroad and the nation's reliance on remittances and other forms of exchange for its survival, Haiti is shaped by an imagined transnational community found within and outside its geographic borders. In this article, we explore music as a prominent cultural form bound up in identity, examine the structural inequalities that have made migration the principal strategy for surviving social, political, and economic turmoil, and consider migration's impact on transnational families. Through Haiti's folk, konpa, and rap music genres, we explore how songs of migration evoke and suspend memory, express longing, and convey hope for (re)connection between migrants and those in Haiti. These songs exemplify cultural identity, authenticity, and innovation as they recount the perseverance, pain, and suffering of Haitians on both sides of the Caribbean Sea. This musical dialogue suggests solidarity but also signals antagonism between those living abroad and those who remain in the homeland. In examining this cultural form, we conclude that what is revealed in this music is what's truly at stake in Haitian migration: more than the survival of families, it is also the hope for revival of a faltering nation.

AbstractObjectiveThis article examines how Haitian families with youth interfacing with the juvenile justice system cope with structural racism and socioethnic discrimination (RSD).BackgroundHaitian families' experiences of discrimination based on their histories, immigrant status, and positionality illustrates the need for more scientific scrutiny of the experiences of RSD among Black immigrant groups. This National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)–funded study details the narratives of and responses to RSD experienced by Haitian families interfacing with the juvenile justice system.MethodData are drawn from psychosocial assessment tools, therapeutic sessions, and ethnographic interviews conducted with Haitian families participating in a family‐based therapeutic intervention. Using critical race theory, we foreground the voices of those negatively impacted and use Bourdieu's theory of practice to examine the intersectionality of race and ethnicity in this population's experiences of RSD.ResultsThe different experiences of and responses to RSD among youth and caregivers of Haitian descent are both a variation of the complex continuum of structural racism in the United States and unique to their immigrant experience of marginalization and cultural invalidation by public institutions, community members, and peers.ConclusionProfessionals working with this population must be sensitive to the ways these experiences impact young people's identity development processes, their health, and well‐being. Haitian caregivers should be encouraged to protect their children by engaging in racial and socioethnic socialization that validates their RSD experiences.ImplicationsUnderstanding the intergenerational experiences of RSD among Black, immigrant groups and encouraging family dialogue and adolescent support will strengthen family cohesion during this period of racial reckoning.