The Haitian occupation government (1822-1844) invited free blacks and fugitives from the United States to settle on the island. In the late 1800s and early 1900s large groups immigrated to the country from Venezuela and Puerto Rico, so much so that two of the country's former presidents and life long political rivals, Juan Bosch and Joaquín Balaguer, had Puerto Rican parents.
During the first decades of the 20th century, many Chinese, Arabs (primarily from Lebanon and Syria), Japanese and to a lesser degree Koreans settled in the country, working as agricultural laborers and merchants. Waves of Chinese immigrants, the latter ones fleeing the Chinese communist People's Liberation Army (PLA), arrived and worked in mines and building railroads. The current Chinese Dominican population totals 15,000. The Arab community is also rising at an increasing rate. Estimates are at 3,400. Japanese immigrants, who mostly work in the business districts and markets, are at an estimate of 1,900 living in the country. The Korean presence is minor but evident at a population of 500.
In addition, there are descendants of immigrants who came from other Caribbean islands, including St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua, St. Vincent, Montserrat, Tortola, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Martinique and Guadeloupe. They worked on sugarcane plantations and docks and settled in the cities of San Pedro de Macoris and Puerto Plata. They are believed to number 28,000. Immigration from Europe and the United States is at an all time high, according to the Joshua Project and BBC: 1,400 Britons reside on the island, in addition to 800 Germans, 4,000 Italians (unofficially, the number is estimated to be as high as 40,000), 1,900 French, 88,000 Spaniards and (in 1999) 82,000 Americans. The town of Sosúa has many Jews who immigrated before or during World War II. The country is now home to 100 Jews.
With recent decades of unrest and poverty in Haiti, immigration from Haiti has increased once again. Some Haitian immigrants arrive in the Dominican Republic illegally and work at low-paying, unskilled labor jobs, including construction work, household cleaning, and in sugar plantations. Current estimates put the Haitian–born population in the Dominican Republic as high as 1 million. Working conditions on these sugar plantations have caused controversy, including allegations that they border on slavery. Moreover, the children of illegal Haitian immigrants are denied citizenship and basic health care, and there are frequent physical attacks on, and roundups of adult immigrants.
Some Dominican and Haitian officials deny such accusations of slavery, with the Haitian ambassador Fritz Cineas stating, "I still have not received any complaint of violation of human rights against the Haitian immigrants in the country." However, the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, stated publicly during a seminar on immigration policy in 2005 that collective expulsions of Haitians were carried out "in an abusive and inhuman way." Selective enforcement of deportation rules is much criticized in Haiti. Some critics say that "the Dominicans could help heal many of Haiti's open political wounds by extraditing back to Haiti many of the criminals of the 1991 coup d'état and the Duvalier dictatorship who enjoy de facto political asylum in the Dominican Republic." When asked for a response to the current situation, Fernandez stated, "There must exist an extradition treaty between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but there isn't one between our two countries."
Courtesy of Wikipedia
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