Essential Agricultural Workers Cross Borders

Within the framework of the binational project known as Dignified Work Crosses Borders, supported by the European Union, OBMICA was responsible for an exploratory study in the Dominican agricultural sector with a view to providing inputs for other components of the project carried out directly with workers, producers, and other key actors. Along with OBMICA, the implementing partners are: Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, the lead organization based in Haiti, Fundacion AVSI, the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace (JILAP), and CESAL.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative examination of the situation of Haitian migrant workers and their relatives in the Dominican banana sector in the Northwest Line of the Dominican Republic, with emphasis on their working conditions within the framework of organic agriculture or fair trade, in which the sector is involved.

Findings

There is a favorable difference for migrant workers laboring within the framework of the so-called fair trade, compared with workers in the banana sector whose producers have not been able to fit within this system or have ceased to meet the standards. Yet significant gaps persist regarding conditions that fully protect workers labor, economic, social, and cultural rights. They normally perform jobs considered lower than those of native workers in that sector.

To close these gaps, the need to pay even more attention to the issue of workers regularization stands out, understanding that the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners was a step forward but that its sustainability over time remains unclear, both for the worker and for relatives who accompany the worker in the Dominican Republic.

Although no signs of forced labor according to ILO definitions were found, freedom of movement is not guaranteed when the worker is outside the farm or plantations, insofar as he or she and/or family members may be exposed in the communities where they live to raids and deportations without due process.

Regardless of Dominican authorities efforts to push more restrictive migration policies and strengthen border controls, a culture of informality continues in relation to both the entry and exit of these workers who do not have their documents in order or who do not necessarily trust the documents they have been given in the Dominican Republic in order to make a regular crossing and/or travel with money or goods from the Dominican Republic to their family in Haiti.

Our teams fieldwork in northern and northeastern Haiti at the beginning of 2020 underlines the challenging context in that country and the more attractive options for its inhabitants to seek work in the neighboring country in the adjoining territory, namely the northwest line in the Dominican Republic. At the same time, it is worth recalling a significant diversification of destinations for low-income Haitian emigrants, especially after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, particularly toward South American countries.

Perspectives

In short, this exploratory study recommends deepening the study of pendular migration in this sector in order to provide more knowledge about this form of transnationalism in which many workers live, and to problematize why they do not appear to have a level of remuneration and bonuses that translates into remittances allowing significant investment in their country of origin. This does not imply setting aside the formulation of policies and integration plans for workers, whether their stay is more or less long in the host country, which, according to the studys findings, remain weak.

It is urgent to bring what has been described into dialogue with the future of fair trade from the perspective of countries of the global North, where initiatives are underway that could have an impact on the matter, and in the case of trade with Europe, to analyze the impact of Brexit, recognizing that 2020 is the transition year for the United Kingdoms withdrawal from the European Union.

NOTE: The full report is available in Spanish and French