Dominican Americans

History and Socioeconomic Profile

The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, also known as Quisqueya, which it shares with Haiti. Santo Domingo, the present-day capital of the Dominican Republic, was the point of departure for European colonization of the Americas. In the late 15th century, Spanish colonization culminated in the decimation of the indigenous Taíno people and the subsequent importation of Africans as slaves. In the early 19th century, the Spanish colony was occupied by Haiti, declared its independence in 1844, and then reannexed itself to Spain. A second independence was declared in 1865. Since the late 19th century, the Dominican Republic has had a neocolonial relationship with the United States, marked by an attempted annexation in the 1870s, two U.S. military occupations in 1916–1924 and 1965–1966, and ongoing U.S. economic, political, and cultural influence.

Although a small pre-1965 Dominican exile community was present in the United States, mass migration did not commence until major changes occurred in U.S. immigration laws in 1965. During the 1980s and 1990s, Dominicans were the largest single-origin immigrant group in the New York City region. Dominicans are concentrated in the northeastern United States. The largest Dominican community lives in New York City, where more than half a million Dominicans are the second largest Latino group after Puerto Ricans. Dominican immigrants have near gender parity and are relatively young. A third of Dominicans were born in the United States.

Dominicans have low levels of educational attainment. Almost half of Dominicans 25 years or older had not completed a high school education at the time of the 2000 census, compared with only 20% of the general U.S. population. There are stark differences between U.S.-born Dominicans and those born in the Dominican Republic. Only 19.4% of U.S.-born Dominicans aged 25 or older had not completed a high school education.

Dominicans have the highest poverty rate in New York City (32%). In 2000, Dominicans had a mean annual per-capita household income of $11,065, which was half of that of the rest of the country ($22,086). This was also lower than that of Latinos, non-Hispanic Blacks, Asians, and Whites. More than a third of Dominican households are women-headed (38.2%), and among these households, half were poor.

In the 2000 U.S. Census, Dominicans, like other Latinos, were not considered a race. Among Latinos, Dominicans have the largest number of people identifying as Black and the lowest number who identify as White. Dominicans also have the highest number of [Page 409]individuals who identify themselves as “other.” Although Dominicans are included as a Latino group in most analyses, their social indicators align more clearly with other Black groups. Most Dominicans would be classified as Black in the United States regardless of how they identify.

Dominican Day parade. Spectators are shown holding flags at the Dominican Day Parade in New York City on June 15, 1993. The annual parade was established in 1982 and has become one of the major parades in New York in attendance.

Source: Getty Images.

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