Diana
IMMIGRATION TO THE BAHAMAS
Why is the Bahamas angry about the rising immigration of Haitians into their country? How are they keeping Haitian immigrants from coming in?
Immigration, a term that has always been a bit controversial, has driven Haitians to the Bahamas hoping to find a better life, but they are rejected upon arrival. With poor wages and harsh living conditions, many Haitians hopped on a boat and sailed their way to the Bahamas. So many Haitians migrated to the Bahamas illegally, computing enough people to create their own entity in the Bahamas bringing concern amongst the Bahamians. Bahamian locals thought that migrants were taking up all their resources and even schools were highly populated with Haitians making up a third of the population. Due to the rise of cultural competition, the local government enacted laws and regulations to stop Haitian migrants from accessing Bahamas resources and made it difficult for them to also acquire work and residency permits. Discrimination towards Haitians became more prominent, generating a polarized society in which poor migrants would work lower-level jobs such as gardeners and hotel housekeepers that would distinguish them from local Bahamians. This brings up the question: why is the Bahamas angry about the rising immigration of Haitians into their country and how are they keeping them from coming in?
There is an estimate of around 300,000 Haitian immigrants living in the Bahamas illegally. Many believe that there are many more that are not documented. Stevenson Jacobs mentions in his writing “Illegal Status, Immigration to the Bahamas” that “the flow of Haitians sneaking into the Bahamas is turning into a flood that is straining social services and bringing calls for mass deportations” (Jacobs 1). The population in the Bahamas is already small and discreet and the community is afraid that with mass migration coming from Haiti, they will lose everything they built for the Haitian people.
