Michele Wucker est la directrice exécutive du World Policy Institute (Institut des politiques mondiales) et l’auteure de Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola [Pourquoi le coq se bat: Dominicains, Haïtiens et le combat pour Hispaniola]
(translation of the article that appeared on ForeignPolicy.com Jannuary 19th)
part of a collection from the December “The Right to Move?” conference in Tokyo.
January 26, 2010
Facing demographic and economic challenges, countries around the world are reconsidering the policies that govern migrant rights—the basis on which people are allowed to enter a country, the access that non-citizens have to services and rights, and the ability of non-citizens to naturalize. Decisions about who gets the right to move have significant consequences for the citizens, societies, and economies of host and sending countries alike.
The central question for many countries is: Who is admitted and how? In countries where ethnicity or family ties are priority criteria, the ethics of deciding who enters are closely tied to national conceptions of self-interest and identity. Sometimes these conceptions conflict, as Germany found when reconciling its long-standing policy of admitting people based on blood ties with its national desire to provide hospice to refugees. Admissions decisions also have consequences for sending countries which in turn ripple back to host countries when borders are weak and economic pull is strong.
Immigration rights advocates often make a moral argument for liberalizing immigration policy. No matter how good the moral case is, however, under the fraught politics of immigration the only arguments that will succeed are those that make a strong case for the self-interest of the host society. Yet the moral arguments are not necessarily opposed to self-interest; in fact, they often coincide. Continue reading Jan 26: Linking Ethics and Self-Interest in Human Mobility
The danger, says Michele Wucker, executive director of the World Policy Institute in New York, is that talks could get mired in an ideological debate over the role of the private sector and the state in Haiti’s future.
“You need both,” says Wucker. “You need an engaged private sector, a strong state, and you need accountability for both.
“In the best-case scenario, the rebuilding process is done in such a way that Haitian civil society is engaged, that there’s a way for communities to communicate what their priorities are.”
And whatever the eventual details of that reconstruction, attaining one legacy may well be crucial.
“The focus (should be) on collaboration and building the capacity of the Haitian government, so that, at the end of the process, we have some institutions that can withstand changes of government at the top.”
On January 21. I appeared with Marselha Gonçalves Margerin of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights on a Worldfocus Radio segment on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, hosted by Martin Savidge. Follow the link for audio and comments.
Five experts on nation-building, economic development, and emergency aid weigh in on how best to help devastated Port-au-Prince.
JANUARY 19, 2010
(Fellow experts include Paul Collier and Jean-Louis Warnholz; Clare Lockhart; and Dan Schnitzer)
By Michele Wucker
Amid the rubble, Haitians trying to find reasons for hope can look to the chance to rebuild. Although there are as yet no reliable estimates of what it will cost, it’s clear that Haiti will need a long-standing commitment of amounts far beyond what has been committed to past rebuilding programs — and any new development schemes should look to past attempts to avoid repeating their mistakes.
Video from my appearance on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, TVO Canada, from Friday January 15th, discussing Haiti with Gage Averill, Elizabeth Abbott, Chantalle Verna, and Kara McDonald.
Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper quoted me in an article about Haiti and the Dominican Republic that ran this morning, Wednesday, January 20th.
A tale of two nations
Tourists pose for a picture on the beach in Samana, Dominican Republic. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Although they have a shared history and geography, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are worlds apart
SIRI AGRELL
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 12:00AM ESTLast updated on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 4:16AM EST
They have been both been colonized, oppressed and exploited. They have lived through brutal dictatorships and U.S. invasions.
The two countries that occupy the tiny island of Hispaniola may have a shared history, but they have developed into two startlingly different places. The massive earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince left many people in the Dominican Republic, just 250 kilometres away, feeling nothing worse than a little dizziness.
Video clip from my appearance on Laura Flanders’s show, GritTV Tuesday, January 19, along with Rodney Leon and Bill Fletcher Jr. discussing priorities as Haiti rebuilds.
Tremors from the January 12 earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, reached all the way to the Dominican Republic, which shares the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola. In the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, new high-rise apartment buildings that have gone up over the past several years swayed but did not collapse. The brand-new metro system closed in case of aftershocks. In most cases, however, the biggest issue was motion sickness.
The tremors will be felt in other ways, particularly in their impact on the long-complicated relationship between the two countries. It may not be a tectonic shift, but more likely a series of lurches for the better, even keeping in mind the new challenges to the ties between the two nations.
