An Analysis of The U.S. Government's Policies Toward the Haitian "Boat People" Influx in the Context of International Refugee Law
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Authors
Schmidt, Peter G.
Issue Date
1986
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
From 1972 to 1982, the United States faced an alien
influx which sorely tested our government's capacity to
fulfill its legal and moral obligations towards refugees.
More than 100,000 Haitians made an 800 mile journey to the
U.S. by boat and arrived on the shores of Florida; of
these Haitians, more than 40,000 filed refugee status
claims. Together with more than 100,000 Cubans who had
sailed from the Cuban port of Mariel, the so-called
Haitian "boat people" overwhelmed our refugee processing
system and made headlines with stories of detention camp
unrest, riots, and tragic drowning deaths at sea. Were the Haitian "boat people" a humanitarian
concern? If so, did the United States government address
this concern successfully? According to Miller, "the
major problem faced by scholars who attempt to analyze the
plight of the Haitian 'boat people' is one of definition:
Are they or are they not refugees?" Once we have
addressed this question, we can then analyze the U.S.
government's policies and decide whether our treatment of
the Haitians was legal, fair, and, most important of all,
humane.
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v, 150 p.
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