Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

View of theDuarte Highway north of Santo Domingo
Courtesy Inter-American Development Bank
York who earned less than US$500 per month. He sent US$150
of this to his wife and children and another US$100 to his parents
and unmarried siblings. In 1990 remittances accounted
for 40 percent of Dominican family income, and 88 percent of
these remittances came from New York state.
Money from abroad has had a multiplier effect; it has
spawned a veritable construction boom in emigrants' hometowns
and neighborhoods beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing
since that time. Some of the returning "Domyorks" who
survived and profited from drug trafficking have brought
about a major change in traditional Dominican society with
their Hollywood homes, expensive cars, noisy bars, and discos.
San Francisco de Macoris is the main city that has been so
transformed. The increasing emigrant investments in housing
and in tourism also have challenged the traditional elite's
monopoly control. Additionally, emigrants contribute significant
sums to the church back home. Many parish priests make
annual fund-raising trips to New York to seek donations for
local parish needs.
The impact of emigration is widely felt, which is illustrated
by the experience of two Dominican villages, two decades
apart, whose emigrants went to New York City and Boston. In
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