Haitian Americans: a Socioeconomic Snapshot

Algernon AustiN

 September 25, 2024
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In recent days, there have been false and incendiary claims about Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio. This has led to serious public safety concerns – including threats directed at local schools and businesses, and to national media discussions about the economic impact of these newly arrived immigrants. Some historical and socioeconomic context would be helpful.

Haitians have a long history in the United States. A Haitian military unit, the Chasseurs, fought for US independence during the Revolutionary War and were crucial to the US military victory in Savannah, Georgia in 1779. The arrival of Haitians in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in New Orleans and the lower Mississippi Valley was important in the development and culture of the region. The larger, more recent waves of Haitian immigration have been at least partially the result of French and US policies and repeated interventions that have helped to foster poverty, underdevelopment and political instability in Haiti. Today, many Haitian Americans serve as elected officials at all levels of government.

This factsheet presents a quick look at the socioeconomic status of the 1.2 million people in the United States with Haitian identities. Haitian Americans are a diverse population. Almost two fifths of them were born in the United States. While they can be found in every state, nearly half of them live in Florida. They work in all major industries, with a strong concentration in healthcare. As is fairly common with other immigrant groups, Haitian Americans appear to experience intergenerational upward mobility. US-born Haitian Americans have a higher educational attainment and higher incomes than the Haiti-born population.

Where Were Haitian Americans Born and Where Do They Live?

There are over a million Haitian Americans living in the United States (Table 1). Three fifths (60 percent) of this population were born in Haiti. Almost all of the remaining population that claim Haitian ancestry were born in the United States. A little less than 2 percent was born in some county other than Haiti or the United States.

Haitian Americans can be found in every state and the District of Columbia, but the numbers vary tremendously (Table 2). There were less than 40 Haitian Americans living in Wyoming, the state with the lowest count in the 2018 to 2022 period, while nearly 600,000 were living in Florida, the state with nearly half (46.2 percent) of all Haitian Americans. A bit less than a fifth (17.5 percent) of Haitian Americans live in New York, the state with the second largest population. Massachusetts and New Jersey ranked third and fourth respectively with 8.0 percent and 6.8 percent. These four states account for more than three quarters of the Haitian American population.

Table 2

Where Do Haitian Americans Work?

A fifth (21.3 percent) of Haitian Americans work in the healthcare industry (Table 3). Many of them are nurses, nursing aides, and other hospital workers. The second largest industry for Haitian Americans is the broad retail category. Almost a fifth (18.7 percent) of Haitian Americans are in this sector, working as cashiers, cooks, stock clerks, and a wide range of other jobs. The third largest industry category for Haitian Americans is education and social services, with 15.3 percent of them employed in this sector. Many Haitian Americans in this sector work as teachers and teacher assistants. In addition to their care work in hospital and health care facilities, Haitian Americans can also be found doing care work as home health aides.

Table 3

Haitian Americans Appear to Have Intergenerational Upward Mobility

It is not uncommon for US immigrants to experience intergenerational upward mobility. The data suggests that this is also the case for Haitian Americans. The US-born population has a higher educational attainment and income level than the foreign born. The share of the US-born population with bachelor’s and advanced degrees is more than twice that of the Haiti-born (Table 4). Nearly two fifths (37.6 percent) of the Haiti-born are low income, but less than a third (29.9 percent) of the US-born are (Table 5). About a fifth (18.4 percent) of the Haiti-born are high-income, but more than a quarter (26.9 percent) of the US-born are high-income.

In short, despite the troubling and dangerous political rhetoric that is targeting communities in Springfield, Haitian Americans have much in common with other immigrant communities in the United States.

This first appeared in CEPR.

Algernon Austin, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His primary focus has been on the intersection of race and the economy.