SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN HAITI

Social problems in Haiti

Social problems in Haiti

Haiti has long been known for its major export of Haitian migrants in search of a better way of life. It is an exodus that goes back several decades, however with recent times the numbers have increased dramatically. In fact, that numbers of Haitians fleeing Haiti in the early 1990 s far exceeds the numbers recorded in earlier years.

Economic deprivation has always been the predominant influence for the migrating of Haitians, yet in the early 1990s, it was a repressive political system that was compelling the mass exodus of Haitians from their homeland. Haiti had become a place where military forces had consolidated their rule by ruthlessly suppressing the land s once diverse and civil society that had come about after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship seven years earlier.

From the very beginnings of the crisis in Haiti, we can see the various policies adapted by the three different presidents who held office in the U.S. Through the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations, there is an evolution of policy from that of silence, to a gradual increase of concern, and ultimately an objective of restoring democracy in Haiti. However, the one thing that remained constant throughout each administration was the U.S. policy and practice of interdiction and repatriation of Haitian refugees. This policy was indeed successful in curtailing the influx of Haitians into the U.S.

The theory of normative liberalism can be seen as an explanation for the U.S. policy in dealing with the Haitian refugees. The theory assumes that democratic societies have certain democratic norms translate into international non-violence. However, any state that violates these norms will be subject to punishment. The essential norm that identifies liberalism is the right to individual freedoms, which above all is the idea of moral freedom.

Another aspect of normative liberalism is the fact that it deals explicitly with states. Liberal states will seek to confront the threats of authoritarian states. Therefore, the U.S. will seek to punish the Haitian government.

Haitian refugee situation is that the un-represented people had to be forcibly returned in order to be helped. The repressed Haitians must suffer in their authoritarian state until democracy can somehow be restored there. By returning the individual Haitians to their homeland, the U.S. was in fact taking steps to not undermine the belief and prospect that Haiti would one day in fact reestablish itself as a civil society, allowing its citizens to flourish. During the brief time that President Arsitide governed Haiti, the U.S. did not encounter any cases of Haitian fleeing the country because of repression. To the contrary, hundreds of Haitians returned to the land of their birth while many more maintain that their hope is to return to their homeland, once democracy has been reestablished and the will of the people respected.

According to normative liberalism, the Haitian government under Avril's military rule would be characterized as an authoritarian state, one that does not share the same norms as the ...