Borders of Visibility: Haitian Migrant Women and the Dominican Nation-State

Borders of Visibility is an anthropological study that examines the mobility of Haitian migrant women in the Dominican Republic, focusing on the geographies of power that intersect to inform their opportunities and constraints. It combines ethnographic interviews, participant observation, institutional analyses, and archival documentation to highlight the human rights issue and the economic ingenuity and entrepreneurial savvy of Haitian migrant women.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 206 pages
Publication date: 14 June 2022
Publisher: The University of Alabama Press

Borders of Visibility: An Anthropological Study of Haitian Migrant Women's Mobility in the Dominican Republic

This groundbreaking work by Jennifer L. Shoaff provides a timely and insightful exploration into the racist treatment of Haitian descendants in the Dominican Republic. Through a multisited feminist research approach, Shoaff delves into the geographies of power that intersect to shape the opportunities and constraints faced by migrant women as they navigate labor markets and seek to establish a sense of security and belonging in a context that largely denies their human rights, access to citizenship, and a sense of security and belonging.

Paradoxically, these women are both hypervisible due to their blackness and invisible due to the intersecting power inequalities that marginalize them. Haitian women face a complex web of legal, bureaucratic, and discursive state-local practices across "border" sites, which position them as a specific threat that must be contained. Shoaff examines this dialectic of mobility and containment across various sites in the northwest Dominican Republic, including official border crossings, transborder and regional used-clothing markets, migrant settlements (bateyes), and other rural-urban contexts.

To unravel the complexities of this human rights issue, Shoaff employs a range of research methods, including ethnographic interviews, participant observation, institutional analyses of state structures and nongovernmental agencies, and archival documentation. By combining these diverse approaches, Shoaff brings forth a rich and nuanced understanding of the experiences of Haitian migrant women in the Dominican Republic. While primarily rooted in critical ethnographic practice, Borders of Visibility makes significant contributions to the broader fields of transnational feminism, black studies, migration and border studies, political economy, and cultural geography.

One of the key insights offered by this work is the remarkable economic ingenuity and entrepreneurial savvy of Haitian migrant women. Despite facing numerous barriers and challenges, these women have developed innovative strategies to survive and thrive in the Dominican Republic. They engage in various forms of labor, including domestic work, agriculture, small-scale commerce, and informal sector activities. Shoaff highlights their ability to adapt to changing market conditions, develop networks, and create opportunities for themselves and their families.

Moreover, Borders of Visibility sheds light on the often imp.

Weight: 146g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780817360573