Borders, buscones, brothels, and bi-national markets: Haitian women negotiate how to get through

Abstract

The 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak in Haiti have given a push to women’s migration to the Dominican Republic, and risk of being trafficked. Employing a feminist ethnographic approach, this case study examines the experiences of Haitian women and girls in the Dominican border town of Comendador, Elías Piña, to understand the choices and calculated risks they take in order to “get through.” The authors situate trafficking within a spectrum of violence against women along a border marked by radically asymmetrical power relations, and call for coordinated social interventions beyond law enforcement that guarantee effective protection in the cross-border context.