First national survey about Haitians finds Americans support more migration, aid to Haiti

NEW YORK—A national survey gauging the American public’s views on Haiti and Haitian Americans found that a slight majority support increased migration from Haiti and more aid to Haiti, and that a third of the population believed the lie about Haitian immigrants in Springfield eating pets. 

The poll of 28,025 people — the first-of-its-kind focused on Haitians — was conducted by CHIP50, a consortium of university researchers, at the request of The Haitian Times. The resulting report, titled “Haitian Americans: Issues in Election 2024,” revealed both the general public’s and Haitian Americans’ feelings about a range of groups and prominent figures. Notably, Haitians Americans generally view Democrats more favorably than Republicans, and 44% of them said that the Biden-Harris administration has had a positive impact on Haiti.

“This is exactly like the types of data, the type of information that we need as a community,” Wolf Pamphile, founder and executive director of Haiti Policy House, said when shown the findings.

Pamphile explained that “we’re acting blindly” as a community when presenting proposals based on non-scientific methods such as regular conversations with some people. However, decision-makers often expect validation through rigorous research. Not having such data often leaves the proposals “stuck,” he said.

First national survey involving Haitians “impressive”

The 28,025 people who answered the survey over five weeks fell in three categories: 

• A majority who had no direct relationship with or knowledge of Haitians
• Some who knew or had met Haitians
• A much smaller group of about 400 Haitian Americans, defined as people born in Haiti or who have a parent from there. 

CHIP50 is short for the “Civic Health and Institutions Project, a 50 States Survey.” Launched by a group of researchers from several universities with a variety of expertise, its surveys run the gamut of topics. The group has researched numerous particular groups in the past, including women, younger voters, ethnic groups, Jewish Americans and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) respondents. Haitians Americans is a first for them.

“We thought it was extremely important to gain more insight into the Haitian American community during this election cycle and to learn more about how it sees the world — and how the wider American population perceives the Haitian community,” David Lazer, of Northeastern University, the lead CHIP50 institution for this survey, said in a statement. 

To Dr. François Pierre-Louis, a political science professor at Queens College, the survey is impressive both for its national scope, makeup of respondents and timing. When he ran a survey of Haitians for his book two decades ago, it took him a year just to distribute and collect the paper questionnaires.

“This is the first comprehensive survey about Haitian immigrants in the United States,” he said. “You can do a lot of things with this data. It’s truly impressive.” 

Dr. Gilbert St. Jean, a researcher and policy advisor at Haiti Renewal Alliance, said the scientific rigor of this survey clearly marks the presence of the Haitian American community in Big Data, a must-have for decision makers across arenas of American society.

“Data is important, particularly numbers, when it’s relevant and representative,” St. Jean said. “Elected officials, policymakers and [others] have their ears open into what the population has to say. If you have rigorous data giving some insight as to what people’s feelings and opinions are, what they would support, they [officials] are going to pay attention.” 

National perspectives on Haiti and Haitians

Detailed findings about Haiti and Haitians are available on the CHIP50 site, www.chip50.org/. Among the notable findings: 

• Limited awareness of Haiti’s crises. Among the general public, 40% were familiar with Haiti’s crises. In contrast, 71% of Haitian Americans surveyed said they were familiar.
• Support for Haitian immigration. 
  • Among the general public, 34% said they somewhat or strongly support allowing more people from Haiti to migrate to the U.S. and 29% expressed opposition. 
  • About 22% of people who know Haitians opposed allowing more Haitians in. 
  • Haitian Americans showed the strongest support, with 55% in favor. 
• Support for aid to Haiti. Among the general public, 51% somewhat or strongly support U.S. aid to Haiti. About 62% of Haitian Americans expressed approval of continued or enhanced aid to their homeland.
• Mixed reactions to Biden-Harris administration policies. About 44% of Haitian Americans believe the Biden-Harris administration’s policies have had a positive impact on Haiti and 16% viewed the efforts negatively. Among the general public, 22% perceived a positive effect.

Haitian Americans view both political parties favorably

Looking at how “favorable” respondents found certain groups and people, the survey revealed that Haitian Americans view the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris more favorably than the general public does. Respectively, the group gave a 71%, 67% and 74% to the three, compared with the general public’s 59%, 55% and 65%.

Compared to average U.S. respondents, Haitian Americans also showed greater favorability toward Republicans. Haitian Americans gave the political party a 64%, compared to the general public’s 56%.

‘Eating pets’ lies disinformation endures 

Researchers also asked about the viral lie that Haitians in Springfield were stealing and eating pets to understand its impact. In all, 54% said they found the allegations unlikely. Another 34% believed the false claims were likely, underscoring the tight hold disinformation can take on the public.

About 3,000 participants were brought for that part of the survey, which took place after the Sept. 10 presidential debate where Republican nominee Donald Trump repeated the false rumor. His running mate JD Vance had posted it days prior.

The claim was debunked before Trump repeated it and afterward, when its originators came forward to say they had been mistaken. Still, Trump has not admitted he was wrong and Vance said he intentionally spread the lie for media attention.

“This shows that racism is still alive in our country,” said Dr. Sharon Austin Wright, a political science professor at the University of Florida who teaches African American history.

“There have always been negative attitudes towards Haitians, immigrants of color generally,” she explained. “Many of those attitudes are worse for Haitians, and this is an indication of that.” 

Austin Wright, “It shows that political candidates need to be careful about the rhetoric they use because people really believe these things.” 

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