Care in Human Mobility between Haiti and the Dominican Republic: a seminar with Masaya Llavaneras Blanco

On Friday, July 30, Dr. Masaya Llavaneras Blanco, professor of Development Studies at Huron University College (Canada), shared her research in the lecture entitled "The role of care in human mobility between Haiti and the Dominican Republic," held at the facilities of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) within the framework of the Migra Salud Project.

This project is an initiative aimed at guaranteeing the right to health for people in vulnerable situations. This article reflects key aspects of her presentation, based on fieldwork at the border between the two countries that share the island.

Care as a structural element in migration

The speaker argued that migration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is often analyzed from a security perspective, leaving aside other fundamental aspects such as care work. This limited approach makes invisible the complex dynamics that shape the decisions of migrants, especially Haitian women and women of Haitian descent.

Since 2016, Dr. Llavaneras Blanco has researched human mobility between the two countries, focusing her analysis on care, both paid and unpaid. During the lecture, she stressed that this work, though essential, remains widely invisible in public policy despite its direct impact on migrants' lives.

She explained that the concept of "care" includes both paid domestic tasks and unpaid tasks that women often perform within their own families. However, it is not limited to traditional activities of direct care, such as childrearing or support for dependent people, but also includes broader dimensions such as access to health, education, and social protection. These factors are essential for understanding both the causes of migration and the conditions under which it occurs. In the case of migrant domestic workers, many of them Haitian women, this invisibility is aggravated by their irregular migration status and their lack of access to basic labor and social rights.

The figure of the border inhabitant: an unresolved challenge

One of the issues mentioned during the lecture was the figure of the "border inhabitant." This concept, which emerged as a possible solution to regulate the mobility of people who cross the border daily to work, remains a challenge due to the lack of implementation under the 2004 Migration Law and its 2011 Regulations.

Since 2007, attempts have been made to create identification systems for these workers, allowing a degree of control over their mobility. However, these efforts have not received the necessary backing from Dominican authorities, and the figure of the border inhabitant has yet to be effectively consolidated. The workers, many of whom are Haitian migrants, continue to cross the border informally and, as a result, remain exposed to situations of exploitation and abuse.

This problem is made worse by the lack of access to documentation that would allow them to regularize their migration and labor status. Dr. Llavaneras Blanco underscores the need to establish legal frameworks that recognize and protect these workers, granting them access to basic rights such as health care and social security.

The invisibility of care work

Care work, whether paid or unpaid, is essential to the survival of communities on both sides of the border. Yet this work remains invisible in official statistics and public policy, which perpetuates the exploitation of migrant workers.

Although the Dominican Republic was one of the first countries to ratify International Labour Organization Convention 189, which seeks to regulate and dignify care work, the reality is that migrant domestic workers, most of them Haitian, do not benefit from this framework because it has not been harmonized with national legislation. As a result, the women in question remain in an extremely vulnerable situation.

Life stories: Lucie and the struggle for survival

The lecture also addressed the life stories of migrant women such as Lucie, who arrived in the Dominican Republic as a child under an informal arrangement known as Restavek. This system, which still exists in some Haitian communities, allows minors, especially girls, to be sent to work as domestic employees in exchange for lodging and food, but without any financial compensation.

Lucie, like many other migrant women, experienced multiple forms of violence throughout her life, ranging from labor exploitation to sexual violence. Despite the hardships, she and other women like her continue to use care work as a survival strategy, moving from place to place in search of better living conditions.

Mobility and violence: a perpetual cycle

Dr. Llavaneras Blanco's analysis also connects human mobility with gender-based violence. Migrant women face multiple forms of violence, not only in their countries of origin but also during the migration process and at their destinations. In many cases, paid domestic work becomes a way out of violence, but at the same time that work exposes them to new forms of exploitation and abuse.

Mobility, therefore, is not only a strategy to improve economic conditions but also a way to resist structural violence. However, this mobility is often marked by precarity, which perpetuates the cycle of vulnerability and exploitation.

Care and mobility in a context of exhaustion

The lecture concluded with a reflection on the exhaustion of care and social protection systems, both in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic, which forces people to seek survival strategies that in many cases involve migration. It was noted that migrant women, like Lucie, are trapped in a cycle in which they must care in order to be cared for, but with very little social or labor protection.

This exhaustion is also reflected in the inability of health systems to adequately care for migrant women, many of whom give birth in precarious conditions and, in some cases, lose their children due to the lack of timely medical attention. The lack of documentation worsens this situation, since undocumented women cannot access health services on an equal footing with native-born women, which increases their vulnerability.

Conclusion: the urgency of a comprehensive rights-based approach

The lecture made clear that a profound change is needed in the way human mobility on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border is addressed. It is urgent to adopt a human-rights-based approach that recognizes care work as a central element in migrants' lives and guarantees access to basic rights such as health, documentation, and labor security.

The figure of the border inhabitant, if properly implemented, could be a key tool for regulating the mobility of domestic workers and protecting them from exploitation. However, this requires a serious commitment from Dominican and Haitian authorities, as well as the active participation of civil society and international organizations.

Human mobility between Haiti and the Dominican Republic cannot be understood without considering the crucial role of care. Recognizing this work and guaranteeing the rights of those who perform it is essential to building a more just and inclusive society on both sides of the border. In short, migrant women themselves are interested in joining the Domestic Workers Association, which remains open to including them in its ranks.