Exploring discrimination, stigma and health in the Dominican Republic

The Caribbean island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has been called “the imagined island” for its long history as a contested space of identity, nationalism, and meaning-making. This ongoing process of differentiating self and other has continued since European colonists, indigenous people, and African slaves converged on the island in the late 15th century. In the Dominican Republic, contemporary forms of discrimination and stigma against the Haitian and Haitian-descended minority are rooted in the two countries’ intertwined histories, in which ideas of race, nationality, and class shape how people understand themselves and each other in a fraught and at times injurious social world. This dissertation is the culmination of nearly 10 years of intermittent fieldwork in the Dominican Republic, where I explored discrimination, stigma, and consequences for health among the Haitian and Haitian-descended minority. Rather than pursuing a single, overarching research focus, this work was more of an intellectual journey that spanned disciplines and different professional affiliations along the way. In essence, the findings respond to the following questions:
- How is discrimination said to occur, and why?
- How can we describe the burden of perceived discrimination?
- How are perceived discrimination and health related?
- How do these findings fit into broader systems of power and history?
- What are implications for public health programs and interventions?