The History of Urbanization in Haiti

Beginning with the 1980s, the first massive urban growth in Haiti's largest city and capital Port au Prince results from a combination of factors. Among them is recent emerging middle class. This nation of former slaves successfully threw out its colonial masters, gaining independence over 200 years ago. Slavery and colonization have left their mark on the culture.

Franco-Haitian and Peasant Culture

According to the 2001 to 2005 census figures, 80 percent of the nearly 9 million Haitians continue to live in rural areas. The upper classes historically cherished Franco-Haitian culture, while the former slaves created their own peasant culture.

Soil Conditions Influence Migration

Clearing the highlands of Haiti over the centuries to plant peasant crops has led to soil erosion. In addition, large portions of land overplanted in sugar cane crops robbed this usable acreage of needed nutrients and caused some rural lifestyles to change. Rising numbers of farming people have no option but to migrate to the cities of Haiti to try to survive.

Disintegration of Cooperative Farming

Moving from slavery to freedom, the peasant class early created family communal groups to raise staple crops of corn, cassavas, millet, rice, and fruits to sustain their rustic lives. With less usable land, more sickness and little rural health care, disbanding of these groups increased. The disintegration of cooperative farming has been a reason for people to migrate to the larger villages, towns and cities of Haiti.

Deteriorating Economy

Major factors in Haiti's deteriorating economy since the 1980s adds to the populous relocation to urban centers. Until the last few decades, agriculture--mainly coffee plantations generating 25 percent of this nation's export earnings--kept two-thirds of the inhabitants employed. With severe droughts, hurricanes and collapse of the world market, coffee no longer supports this large portion of Haiti's workers. Tourism is nonexistent with Haiti's unstable political conditions. Labor-intensive industries such as food processing, metal and textile products hold on in the world market. Relying on overseas aid--mostly from the United States--this nation's unemployment is 80 percent. Migration to the urban outskirts of Port au Prince and the other smaller urban sites increases. The result is an urban peasant culture with no structure and unabated poverty.

Growing Middle Class With Urban Squalor

Particularly true of Port au Prince, the language of enterprise is French. The majority of the people in Haiti speak Creole, a mixture of African dialects, Spanish and French. With light industry from 200 investors outside this nation (again mostly the United States), a growing middle class competes to gain a foothold. Less than 20 percent of the people control the wealth, even fewer precariously maintain middle class status and there is an ever-increasing and unrepresented population of urban poor.

References

• Haitian Society
• Characteristics of Port au Prince
• Social Resilience and State Fragility in Haiti