Cholera control and anti-Haitian stigma in the Dominican Republic: from migration policy to lived experience.

Cholera control and anti-Haitian stigma in the Dominican Republic: from migration policy to lived experience. Anthropol Med. 2017 Oct 23;:1-19 Authors: Keys HM, Kaiser BN, Foster JW, Freeman MC, Stephenson R, Lund AJ, Kohrt BA Abstract As cholera spread from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants, a largely undocumented and stigmatized population in Dominican society, became a focus of public health concern. Concurrent to the epidemic, the Dominican legislature enacted new documentation requirements. This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of anti-Haitian stigma in the Dominican Republic from June to August 2012. Eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with Haitian and Dominican community members. Five in-depth interviews were held with key informants in the migration policy sector. Theoretical frameworks of stigma's moral experience guided the analysis of how cholera was perceived, ways in which blame was assigned and felt and the relationship between documentation and healthcare access. In FGDs, both Haitians and Dominicans expressed fear of cholera and underscored the importance of public health messages to prevent the epidemic's spread. However, health messages also figured into experiences of stigma and rationales for blame. For Dominicans, failure to follow public health advice justified the blame of Haitians and seemed to confirm anti-Haitian sentiments. Haitians communicated a sense of powerl...
Source: Anthropology and Medicine - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Anthropol Med Source Type: research