Haitian immigrants are finding a new foothold, a familiar reaction in the US

By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org

Emboldened by work permits and a newfound freedom, Haitian immigrants are leaving their old strongholds in Florida and New York. They often find good jobs while remaining wary of how they will be received in new places in the Midwest and South.

This move helps explain why Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have become embroiled in the presidential election. For weeks, Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance have been spreading false rumors that Haitian immigrants in the city are eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.

Until recently, “we counted Haitians in the dozens,” says Leonce Jean-Baptiste, who helped found the Haitian Association of Indiana in 2008. The association’s goal: “just to make sure that our children would know that there is such a thing as Haitian culture, that their parents come from a very strong, very rich culture and ethnic background,” he said.

Now the association has its hands full helping newcomers with housing and learning the ways of the Midwest, Jean-Baptiste said. Immigrants are coming to fill factory jobs in Indiana, a trend that began during the pandemic.

“Here in Indiana, in Ohio, in the Midwest in general, the manufacturing industry was desperate for workers and so it was a perfect kind of marriage,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Haitians were looking for jobs, they may have lost a low-paying job at a hotel in Florida, they don’t have access to government benefits because they are not citizens, and here they can do better.”

As more Haitian immigrants have the freedom to work legally anywhere because of work permits granted under the Biden administration, many have moved from off-the-book jobs in Florida or New York to factory work in states like Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. .