Haitian Migration Waves To Michigan

An excellent scholarly analysis of the origin and evolution of Michigan’s Haitian population is found in the Michigan State University Master’s Degree Thesis written in 2000 by Chantalle Francesca Verna, Beyond the Immigration Centers: A History of Haitian Community in Three Michigan Cities, 1966 - 1998. Verna focuses on Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing

Three Waves of Migrants
In her work, Verna demonstrates that “Haitians continuously migrated to Michigan since the 1960s. Their movement was induced by political, social and economic insecurity in the homeland, educational opportunities abroad, efforts to establish or re-establish familial ties, and the search for a satisfying quality of life... Michigan’s newcomers included professionals, entrepreneurs, laborers and refugees.” (p. 40) She has developed an insightful typology to summarize migration to Michigan, identifying three different groups of migrants who arrived in three successive waves.

First Wave: Invitees
Those who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s are identified as invitees. Pushed from Haiti largely on account of repressive politics, they arrived in Michigan principally to accept offers for educational and employment opportunities. Finding Michigan’s atmosphere a welcoming one, a few opted either to stay upon the completion of their studies or to return later on. In some cases, the welcoming atmosphere in Michigan drew others, mostly family members, some of whom migrated from New York. This early community was small. According to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) reports, there were 110 Haitian-born persons living in all of Michigan between 1966 and 1977.

Second Wave: Seekers
The second wave, arriving in the 1970s and 1980s, are seekers, or individuals who sought out or recognized the potential in Michigan for professional and personal opportunities. Many members of this group arrived in Michigan as “a second, if not third or fourth point along a dynamic migration journey.” (53) Some were the children of Haitian immigrants. Members of this group included such professionals as doctors, academics and engineers. Quality of life factors, including the lack of congestion relative to New York City, attracted a number of these professionals to Michigan. Family unification was also a factor, as was the opportunity for children of immigrants to strike out on their own as students or young professionals. Still, the community was small. US Census data in 1990 accounts for 238 Haitians residing in Michigan, with about half that group living in Detroit/Wayne County.

Third Wave: Those Who Were Sent
The most recent group of arrivals are identified by Verna as those who were sent. This group includes individuals who, particularly after 1993, were directed to a location in Michigan as a place of refuge. This group includes approximately 195 documented resettled refugees sent directly to Michigan upon acquisition of refugee status. Of them, 145 were settled in Lansing and 40 in Grand Rapids. Additionally, 390 unaccompanied minors are documented as having been resettled under foster care services located in Grand Rapids. Following the influx of this third group, official population statistics of Haitian-born persons living in Michigan increased to 735 in 1997.

A Small, But Growing, Community
As the number of Haitians in the United States continues to grow, so does the size of the Michigan Haitian community - in Detroit and elsewhere. Evidence of this was found at a Haitian Halloween Masquerade Ball in early November where many of the 30 or so Haitian-Americans in attendance were young professionals either born of Detroit parents or relocated to Detroit within the past five years, principally from New York City.

Exact population estimates, already hard to come by, are complicated even more by the fact that, as suggested above, as the population grows and matures, it is composed of both those born in Haiti and their American-born children. Verna cites surveys that indicate, as of 1997, a total of 4,212 Haitians estimated to live in Michigan - a total composed of 753 first-generation Haitians and 3,459 second-generation Haitians.

The exact number of Haitians in Detroit are equally uncertain. One community leader estimates the city’s core Haitian community at a minimum of about 50 families, totaling some 200-300 people. But then he adds, “there are Haitians here who keep in touch with the community and there are others who do not. In any case, there are about 150,000 people from the Caribbean in Detroit area, and we are all a part of that group.”