Thread: The next country to face an illegal alien problem, Haiti

Haiti has been and remains the poorest country located in the Western Hemisphere. To many the Caribbean nation has long conjured up images of poverty and to this is now added that of devestation caused by a natural disaster an earthquake but this combination which is generated by fact is resulting in a highly ironic set of developing circumstances. There is a premium on skilled labor anywhere and a person who has skills and a demonstrated work ethic is most likely to be able to obtain the financing needed to emigrate either legally or illegally. Now that the country faces the need to rebuild and perform a lot of construction at once there is a shortage of labor in the skilled trades and the average compensation for contracts is rising. There are skilled tradesmen who are coming into the country from over the border in the Dominican Republic and to a lesser extent from Cuba. Some of these entrants from the Dominican Republic are returning Haitians but some are the coworkers who are Latino. The trades workers who have remained are becoming concerned with contracts going to foreigners who are coming in to compete with them and due to the existence of areas of weak control not all of these trades workers are authorized and the situation is likely to grow as more of the house holders gather the financing to rebuild. .

I really hate to see the Haitians fall into the same "anything goes" trap we have here.

It's hard for me to believe the wage scales in Haiti would even come close to inducing someone to go there. Unless there are some lucrative contracts being awarded by the government or relief groups.

I suppose, though, equipment operators would be in demand to get rid of the rubble. I wonder if all the cement that crumbled could be recycled, as is done in the states these days. They need some pretty big equipment to do that. Any new buildings put up should not only be earthquake proof, they should be hurricane, flood and termite proof, too. I have worked in post-hurricane Jamaica....and it was a mess, just awaiting another disaster to sweep through.

It's hard for me to believe the wage scales in Haiti would even come close to inducing someone to go there.

Well not from here anyway

Unless there are some lucrative contracts being awarded by the government or relief groups.