Haitians

According to the Constitution of Haiti, a Haitian citizen is:

• Anyone, regardless of where they are born, is considered Haitian if either their mother or father is a native-born citizen of Haiti. A person born in Haiti could automatically receive citizenship.
• A foreigner living in Haiti who has had a continuous period of Haitian residence for five years can apply for citizenship and will have the right to vote, but is not eligible to hold public office until five years after their date of naturalization, excluding those offices reserved for native-born Haitians by Constitutional law.

Schoolchildren from Hinche (Centre)

Haiti's population is mostly of African descent (5% are of mixed African and other ancestry),[38] though people of many different ethnic and national backgrounds have settled and impacted the country, such as Poles[39][40] (from Napoleon's Polish legions), Jews,[39][41] Arabs[42] (from the Arab diaspora), Chinese,[43] Indians,[44][45] Spanish, Germans[46][47] (18th century and World War I), Italians,[42] and French, most marrying into the majority black populace and in turn yielding mixed race children (many of whom are prominent in Haitian society).

The official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole.

Traditionally, the two languages served different functions, with Haitian Creole the informal everyday language of all the people, regardless of social class, and French the language of formal situations: schools, newspapers, the law and the courts, and official documents and decrees. However, because the vast majority of Haitians speak only Creole, there have been efforts in recent years to expand its use. In 1979, a law was passed that permitted Creole to be the language of instruction, and the Constitution of 1983 gave Creole the status of a national language. However, it was only in 1987 that the Constitution granted official status to Creole.

In 1998, a World Bank estimation claimed that approximately 800,000 Haitian citizens were residents of Dominican Republic. By 2001, approximately 15,000 Haitians had migrated to Dominican Republic to work in sugar mills.[50] Haitians workers also migrated to other countries such as the United States, France, Canada, the Bahamas and other Caribbean Islands. In 2006, Approximately 800,000 Haitians resided in the United States (especially in the Miami and New York City areas), 60,000 Haitians were living in France (especially Paris) 40,000 in Canada (especially Montreal) while 80,000 were dispersed between the Bahamas and other Caribbean Islands.[50] The Haitian migration has greatly hindered the development of Haiti in comparison to other countries. Some of the country's most skilled individuals have migrated elsewhere; an estimated 70 percent of Haiti's skilled human resources have left Haiti. In the 2010 U.S. Census, 907,790 citizens identified as Haitian immigrants or with their primary ancestry being Haitian. An increase of just over 100,000 Haitians from 2006. The confiscation of property, massacres, and prosecution caused the upper and middle class of Haiti to migrate to more developed countries in Europe and the United States.[51]

• Haitian diaspora
• Afro-Haitians
• Mulatto Haitians
• White Haitians
• Indo-Haitians
• Arab Haitians
• Chinese Haitians
• Italian Haitians
• French Haitians
• Haitian Mexicans
• Haitian Americans
• Haitian Brazilian
• Haitian Canadians

• Moreau de Saint Mery, Louis (1797–1798). Description topographic, physical, civil, and political history of the French part of the isle Saint-Domingue. Paris.

• Garrigus, John (2006). Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue. U.S.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)