1st Edition

Geographies of the Haitian Diaspora

Edited By Regine O. Jackson Copyright 2011
    348 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    378 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book considers the full sweep of Haitian community invention and recreation in a multitude of national territories, with an eye toward the "place" factors that shape the everyday lives of Haitian migrants. Regine O. Jackson brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to explore how Haitian communities differ across time and place, as well as how migrants adjust to new economic, political and racial realities. The volume includes descriptive ethnographies of Haitians in 19th century Jamaica, eastern Cuba, Detroit, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Paris, and Boston, and innovative scholarly work on non-geographic sites of Haitian community building. The most important question addressed here is not whether the places described represent typical or exceptional Haitian diasporic communities, but how, why and to what effect do Haitians in particular places use diaspora as a signifier. By examining the diversity (and sameness) of the Haitian experience in diaspora, Geographies of the Haitian Diaspora asks how we might situate community in view of increased scholarly attention to transnational processes.

    List of FiguresList of ImagesList of MapsList of Tables.  Foreword: Locality, Globality and the Popularization of a Diasporic Consciousness: Learning from the Haitian Case  Nina Glick SchillerAcknowledgments.  Introduction: Les espaces Haïtiens: Remapping the Geography of the Haitian Diaspora  Regine O. Jackson  Part I: Lateral Moves  1. From the Port of Princes to the City of Kings: Jamaica and the Roots of the Haitian Diaspora  Matthew J. Smith  2. The Dialectic of Marginality in the Haitian Community of Guadeloupe, French West Indies  Paul Brodwin  3. The Onion of Oppression: Haitians in the Dominican Republic  Samuel Martínez  4. On the Margins: The Emergence of a Haitian Diasporic Enclave in Eastern Cuba  Yanique Hume  5. Between Periphery and Center: The Transnational Practices of Haitian Migrants in The Bahamas  Ermitte St. Jacques  Part II: Siting Diaspora  6. Mediating Institutions and the Adaptation of Haitian Immigrants in Paris  Margarita Mooney  7. The Uses of Diaspora among Haitians in Boston  Regine O. Jackson  8. Haitian Migration and Community-Building in Southeastern Michigan, 1966-1998  Chantalle F. Verna  9. Deporting Diaspora’s Future? Forced Return Migration as an Ethnographic Lens on Generational Differences among Haitian Migrants in Montréal  Heike Drotbohm  Part III: Diaspora as Metageography  10. Listening for Geographies: Music as Sonic Compass Pointing Towards African and Christian Diasporic Horizons in the Caribbean  Elizabeth McAlister  11. The Reproduction of Color and Class Hierarchies in Haitian Bilingual Classrooms  Fabienne Doucet  12. Language, Identity and Public Sphere in Haiti’s Diaspora: The Evolution of the Haitian Creolists’ Internet Network  Angel Adams Parham  13. Going Home Again and Again and Again: Coffee Memories, Peasant Food and the Vodou Some of Us Do  Gina Athena UlysseContributorsBibliographyIndex.

    Biography

    Regine O. Jackson is Assistant Professor of American Studies at Emory University.