In Someone Else's Country

Trenita Brookshire Childers, a 2014–2015 Fulbright Scholar, is a health researcher at the American Institutes for Research. Previously, Dr. Childers was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She received her PhD in sociology from Duke University.

• 1 The “Haitian Problem”Krisla: “Haitians in the Dominican Republic Are Like Monkeys Trapped in a Cage”Racism and Immigration: A Global Problem Anti-Haitian Racism Liminal Legality in the Dominican Republic Chapter Overview 2 Batey La Tierra People in La Tierra Sugar Mills Batey Labor Structure Living Conditions and Community Resources People and Families 3 “Just a Baseball Game” The Politics of Exclusion: Policies that Impact Haitian Immigrants Liminal Legality in Someone Else’s Country Needed, yet Unwanted 4 “We Are Not Free” “I’m Dominican Like You” The Politics of Belonging: Policies that Impact Dominicans of Haitian Descent When Citizens Live in Liminal Legality “No Vota”: Generations without a Political Voice Foreigners in Their Own Country 5 “They Are Rounding Up Morenos!” Tulile: A Public Lynching Racializing Illegality Skin Color: “They Want to Kick Out All of los Prietos!” Last Name: “She Couldn’t Finish High School Because of Her Last Name” Speech: “You Just Have to Know How to Talk” Racial Profiling and Immigration Policies 6 Racism, Resistance, and Reframing Illegality Quiet Racism Reframing Illegality Resistance . . . and More Resistance Appendix A: Discussion Questions Appendix B: Research and the Researcher (Methodology) Appendix C: Interview Guide Key Terms Bibliography Index About the Author

Childers (American Institutes for Research) presents an ethnographic study of race embedded in place, resulting in dichotomies of free versus unfree and citizen versus resident. Through her field research, she enables undocumented Haitians in the Dominican Republic to tell their stories of racism and alienation that attest to the stigma associated with "Haitian-ness." Anti-Haitian racism is institutionalized in the DR, creating a liminal space in which Haitians live and work in enclaves, unable to leave without documentation and also unable to acquire the necessary documents in a system stacked against them. In the absence of formal identification, skin color, features, and accent are most often used to identify Haitians and to deny them the formal identification they lack. In a perpetual circle of legal codes, Haitians in the DR exist as low-cost, second-class labor, exploited by their Dominican employers. They have no legal identity, only the shared stigma of being Haitian. This book's strength lies in using subjects’ own words to discuss their plight. . . Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and lower-division undergraduates.