I feel as if all my life the misery of Haiti and Haitians has grabbed attention in this country -- and then receded without having improved in any material way the condition of the citizens of that nation. So now we have the story of the Springfield migrants who seemed to be making a success until Trump and Vance got involved.
• when I was a child, my Episcopal parish church had a relationship with a Haitian parish. Haiti is home to a fast growing diocese of Episcopalians.
• through coups and counter-coups, Haiti was an obsession of Bill Clinton's presidency.
• Dr. Paul Farmer drew on his experience doctoring in rural Haiti to found the international Partners in Health.
• as North Americans working to improve conditions for Nicaraguans in Nicaragua, we over and over would emphasize that the country is the poorest in the Americas -- "except for Haiti".
I have no doubt that Haiti continues to suffer for its original sin -- having been the one country in the Americas to throw off European domination by way of an African slave revolt. We don't talk about this much, but that history has lurked under two centuries of North American meddling and neglect.
The influx of legal migrants to work in Springfield, Ohio, is one way Haitians are coping with their current misery. These graphics -- by way of Adam Tooze -- add some depth to that story:
Whilst the number of Haitians in the USA increased by 75 percent, hard work, entrepreneurial success and savings generated a more than sevenfold surge in remittances to Haiti.
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