ABSTRACT
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the physical territory of the island of Hispaniola. They do not share it equally, however, the Dominicans possessing some two-thirds, with only half as much left to a Haitian population which is only slightly lower than the Dominican one. Both countries are poor, but neither is poverty shared alike. Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America with a gross national product per capita which was estimated by the World Bank to equal some US$260 in 1978 whereas the corresponding figure for the Dominican Republic was 3.5 times as high, or US$910, according to the same source. 1 This income gap has led to a steady stream of temporary and permanent migrants from Haiti to the Dominican Republic for a full century.
