Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-7-2019

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Croft Institute for International Studies

First Advisor

Kate Centellas

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

On January 12th, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the nation of Haiti. The people of Haiti suffered many losses of life, homes, and livelihood. Later that year, as a result of the earthquake, a cholera outbreak occurred in Haiti taking the lives of thousands more. This study attempts to determine if Haitians were at a higher risk of being trafficked and if human trafficking increased on the island after the earthquake. I analyze how human trafficking in Haiti and the Dominican Republic was impacted as a result of the earthquake and the consequent reaction of the Dominican Republic in both policies and public attitude towards Haitians. Using past studies on factors that affect levels of trafficking I form the theoretical framework for my argument. The factors from the literature on trafficking that pertain to the case of Haiti and the Dominican Republic are economic levels, discrimination, and immigration policies. I measure and analyze these three factors in order to determine if Haitians were more vulnerable to trafficking and if trafficking increased after the 2010 earthquake. The results suggest that, after the earthquake, economic conditions in Haiti worsened, levels of discrimination towards Haitians in the Dominican Republic increased greatly, and that the Dominican-Haiti border was patrolled in such a way that increased levels of trafficking. I thus conclude that, it is likely that Haitians were increasingly susceptible to being trafficked after the earthquake and trafficking increased on the island.

Comments

A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from the Croft Institute for International Studies and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

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