Haitian and Dominican Sugarcane Workers in Dominican Bateyes: Patterns and Effects of Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination

Based on interviews with 80 workers, this is a case study of the living and working conditions of Haitian and Dominican cane workers in bateyes (cutters’ villages) in the Dominican Republic. The theory of structural conditions of social prejudice, as advanced by Heintz, Held, Hoffmann-Nowotny and Levy, is used to explain the relatively low occurence of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination among the bateyes’ Dominican inhabitants, in contrast to the high level of structural discrimination and dismal working conditions the Haitian migrants must face in Domincan society and in the international community.