Haitians

According to data from the 2009-2011 ACS, there are 94,215 foreign-born Haitians in New York City. They make up 1.2 percent of the total city population (of 8,183,757) and 3.1 percent of the city’s total foreign-born population (of 3,019,068). The Haitian foreign born make up 15.3 percent of all 615,241 foreign-born blacks in the city. Furthermore, the Haitian foreign born make up 67.4 percent of the 139,726 individuals in New York City who are of Haitian descent, which also includes Haitians who are the native-born descendants of immigrants.

Between 1990 and 1999, a total of 30,490 Haitian immigrants settled in New York City. They have clearly benefitted from the family-reunification provisions of the 1965 Hart-Celler Act: 59.5 percent of Haitians immigrants in NYC entered the United States with a family preference visa and another 35.0 percent did so with an immediate family visa. Only small percentages used employment visas (2.4 percent) or diversity visas (0.5 percent) or came as refugees (2.1 percent). It is obvious that most Haitians are coming to America to reunite with their families, although these categories might have shifted after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Haitians are known to be family oriented: the importance of family duties and ties are instilled in their culture and religion and can also be observed in their migration patterns (Cook Ross 2010). This type of enduring family-bond induced immigration follows Massey’s social capital theory of migration, which focuses on how family ties perpetuate migration among extended family members (Massey 1999).

Given than Haitian Creole and French are the official languages of Haiti, it is not surprising that only 9 percent of foreign-born Haitians aged 5 and over in New York City speak only English at home. The vast majority (71 percent), however, report speaking English “very well” or “well.” Compared to all foreign-born individuals aged five and over, foreign-born Jamaicans are doing relatively well and a larger percentage speaks English “very well” or “well” (71 vs. 47 percent) and a smaller percentage speak English “not well” or “not at all” (21 vs. 29 percent). However, foreign-born Haitians struggle more with the English language than foreign-born Jamaicans (the other group of black immigrants included in our dataset), which is understandable given that Jamaica is an English-speaking country.

By looking at both language and education data, we hoped to learn more about the relationship between English proficiency and educational attainment. We hypothesized that greater proficiency in English would correlate with the attainment of higher educational degrees. We found that indeed foreign-born Haitians have better English language skills and a better educational profile compared to some immigrant groups, including Mexicans and Dominicans (data not shown here). However, we were surprised to see that foreign-born Haitians essentially had equivalent educational profiles to foreign-born Jamaicans, even though the latter already speak English. We are not sure what can explain this. Perhaps it is testament to Haitian immigrants’ determination to take advantage of educational opportunities to advance themselves in the United States, or perhaps they came to the United States with relatively strong educational credential to begin with. Both Haitian and Jamaican immigrant groups, however, still trail behind the educational attainment of native-born New Yorkers.

Although family ties are strong among Haitian immigrant families, this is something that we can also see in the data on the household composition of Haitian immigrants in New York City. According to data from the 2009-2011 ACS, 43 percent of foreign-born Haitians live in married couple families, compared to 54 percent of all foreign-born New Yorkers and 44 percent of native-born New Yorkers. What stands out is that relatively large percentages of foreign-born Haitians live in of single-parent households: 13 percent live in a male-headed family and 32 percent live in female-headed families. These percentages are higher than for both all foreign-born and all native-born in New York City. Compared to all foreign-born (10 percent) and all native-born (13 percent), a smaller percentage of foreign-born Haitians (7 percent) live alone.

According to data from the 2009-2011 ACS, foreign and native-born Haitians have median household incomes of $56,900 and $57,935, respectively. Haitians trail slightly behind Jamaicans’ median household income of $59,915 for foreign-born Jamaicans and $58,600 for native-born Jamaicans. Haitians, however, do significantly better than foreign-born and native-born Dominicans and Mexicans. One reason why both foreign-born and native-born Haitians have relatively high median household incomes is because significant percentages work in managerial and sales and office occupations, which pay relatively good salaries.

Sources:
“Background on Haiti and Haitian Health Culture.”  2010.  A Cultural Competence Primary from Cook Ross Inc. Cook Ross Inc.

Lobo, Arun Peter, and Joseph J. Salvo.  2004.  The Newest New Yorkers, 2000: Immigrant New York in the New Millennium.  New York: New York City Department of City Planning, Population Division.

Massey, Douglas S.  1999.  “Why Does Immigration Occur?  A Theoretical Synthesis.”  Pp. 34-52 in The Handbook of International Migration, edited by Charles Hirschman et al.  New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.

U.S. Census Bureau.  2009-2011.  American Community Survey, 3-year estimates 2009-2011.  (IPUMS data analyzed by John Mollenkopf, CUNY Graduate Center).