Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: The Society and Its Environment
knowledge of European cultural refinements and French language
and customs. Light skin and straight hair are important
characteristics of this group although there are important phenotypical
exceptions, particularly among old elite families originating
in the northern region. French surnames are common
among the mulatto elite, but increased immigration from
Europe and the Middle East in the late nineteenth and the
early twentieth centuries introduced names of other national
origins to the roster, including German, English, Danish, and
Arabic.
To a certain extent, people of Arab origins in Haiti are identified
as an ethnic minority; these people include descendants
of Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian traders who first arrived in
the late nineteenth century. From their beginnings as itinerant
peddlers of fabrics and other dry goods, Arab merchants
moved into the export-import sector, engendering the hostility
of Haitians and foreign rivals. Many have Haitian citizenship
and use French and Creole as their preferred languages. Formerly
spurned by elite mulatto families, families of Arab origins
in the 1990s commonly intermarry with Haitians and take
part in all aspects of upper-class life, including the professions
and industry.
The Middle Class
The middle class was essentially nonexistent during the nineteenth
century. It became somewhat more sharply defined
around the time of the United States occupation (1915-34).
Occupation policies fostered the growth of intermediary
classes, including the creation of a professional military and
expansion of government, urban growth, and increased centralization
of economic and political power in Port-au-Prince.
Educational reform in the 1920s, an upsurge in nationalism
and black consciousness, and the wave of economic prosperity
after World War II also fostered the emergence of an expanded
middle class. The mulatto elite dominated government in the
1930s and the early 1940s, however, and thwarted the political
aspirations of the black middle class. Under Dumarsais Estime
(1946-50) and Francois Duvalier (1957-71), an active member
of the negritude movement, and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier
(1971-86), the black middle class grew in size and political
influence. Since the 1970s, broad-based emigration has tended
to expand the Haitian middle class as a result of upward mobility,
overseas remittances, and a stream of return migration in
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