Peripheral Migrants: Haitians Dominican Republic [Hardcover]

Samuel Martinez (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press; 1st edition (March 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870499017
• ISBN-13: 978-0870499012
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,360,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best English language book on this subject, April 30, 2004

By 

Dan Kappus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peripheral Migrants: Haitians Dominican Republic (Hardcover)

Martinez here summarizes the literature on bateyes and the Dominican sugar industry, which is primarily in Spanish or unavailable to audiences in the US.

There are other books that deal directly with immigration from Haiti from a political, human rights, or folklore perspective. This book explains the mechanics of haitian immigration to bateyes and relates it to the body of theory about immigration and transnationalism. It's a narrow subject, but if you, like me, have a strong connection to the rural poor of the eastern half of a small island relatively close to Miami, or if you are interested in immigration as a social phenomena, you should find this to be fascinating reading. The key questions for him are about who immigrates to the DR and why.

If the subject of migration theory doesn't really excite you, but you're still interested in Haitian cane cutters in the DR, the bibliography will be immensely useful for you in assembling your own study. Kicks journalistic interpretations (c.f. Michelle Wucker) in the pants, and short of sitting in the library of El Museo Del Hombre Dominicano in Santo Domingo, it's probably the best place to start if you want to understand bateyes and a bit of the context of Haitian labor in the DR.