The Next Large Haitian Community?
When Haitian-Americans in Florida, the metro New York Area, and other cities start to talk about the community of Haitians in Atlanta, the conversation becomes highly animated. Many of them perceive the southern metropolis as the next major metropolitan center that will attract a large Haitian community. While this may be undeniably true, the manner in which the Atlanta community is growing is different from the traditional Haitian centers of Miami, New York, New Jersey and Boston.

Presently, there is already a sizeable Haitian community in Atlanta. And it is, indeed, growing at a rapid pace. Unlike most other Haitian-American centers, though, Atlanta does not have a central neighborhood where it is located. The community, like the city, is spread out considerably over a large area. To a certain extent this diffusion of the Haitian population has been a hindrance to the community’s ability to organize itself. At this moment, however, the tide seems to be turning, as a number of issues are galvanizing the community and bringing it closer together. Changes in the migration flows of Haitians to Atlanta, awareness of national-scale Haitian-American issues and the approaching bicentennial of Haiti’s independence are all factors contributing toward the solidification of Atlanta’s spread out Haitian population.

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