Smaller
BiggerHow much does Haitian immigration cost the Dominican Republic?
Controlling irregular Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic has been a difficult task for the governments in charge, while the cost of supporting these immigrants in the Dominican Republic for childbirth care, education, and security is high for the Dominican State.
Even if a deportation policy is established in the country, the state has more than 22 billion pesos to support health care for parturients, education, and actions of care and protection of the Dominican-Haitian border to prevent the illegal entry of Haitian citizens.
The available resources fluctuate, but the reality is that the number grows every year. For many years, the Dominican Republic’s largest investment as a result of Haitian immigration has been in the health sector. According to Ministry of Public Health figures, the government has invested 10 billion pesos per year in Haitian women in labor who come to this side of the island to give birth over the last two years.
Daniel Rivera, the current Minister of Health, explained that previously, between 6 and 7 percent of Haitian women in labor entered the country, but this did not affect the system. As he explains, the figure is now concerning because it has reached up to 40%, and in some areas of the country, the figure is around 60% at the beginning of November. According to Public Health figures, the National District, Santo Domingo province, Santiago, La Altagracia, and Valverde had the highest number of births among Haitian women from January to September 2021.
If only the international organizations with the cooperation of Haiti and the RD put their resources together to build and staff hospitals on the Haitian side of the border, costs would be reduced. A good percentage of border crossings would be reduced by keeping Haitians on their side. This action would alleviate the stress on Dominican hospitals and treasury. There has been a lot of talk about this over many years but no undertakings.
It the international community is unwilling to send troops into Haiti at least it can send medical support to reduce the invasion.
how is this possible?
i thought the hatians were “contributing” to the economy when not even regular Dominicans pay income tax, or how they weren’t decreasing the average salary of a dominican by being part of the workforce and taking jobs in hotels, golf courses etc.
WHO could have thought that simple math was right? this is the first time this is mention, it’s not like it’s been this way for years now.
Sorry for my bad English, buuut I wanted to reply to this…I’m not sure, and it is hard to talk without numbers, but I don’t think they are contributing for the following reasons:
– Haitians people work in sectors not well structured by the government, and they are not paying taxes for it, like construction, cleaning, selling food, clothes….etc… and the only tax they pay is when they shop in the market, but they use Education, Healthcare, Take over abandoned, deportation cost for the country, etc…. it is not a lie about the women in labor, not to mention some of them leave the kid at the Hospital and just go. If I am totally honest, I don’t think they are contributing at all, not because it is their fault, it is because we are too disorganized, and it is not their fault the gov is not charging them taxes, it is not their fault the gov is not charging them for education nor health care, simple, they are not paying taxes because the government hasn’t created a structure for them or any other employee in those sectors pay.
– About Dominicans paying taxes, we do pay taxes, and a lot, every employee has taxes deducted right from the paycheck, also when you buy a car, a house, in the market, insurance, take a loan, make an internet transaction, have a business, by gasoline, go on a trip and need to go to another city…. of course, there are Dominicans that also work like Haitians do (in unstructured sectors) and that is another problem the government need to improve…. imagine a group of people paying taxes for those Dominicans + foreigns… it wouldn’t be fair for anyone