Dominican Republic

With its almost 10 million people, the Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island Hispaniola. While its economy was historically dependent on the export of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, during the second half of the 20th century tourism developed faster. At the beginning of the 21st century, less than 20 percent of Dominicans worked in the agricultural sector. The majority of the population is employed in the service and government sector. Although this economic growth at the turn of the century was one of the fastest in the Western Hemisphere, extensive social differences still exist in the country, where over 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line. As is often the case with countries where wealth is unevenly distributed and government is not fully democratic, people tend to rely on informal social networks to carry on their lives.

Informal social networks are particularly important for poor women and sex workers, who have increased with the expansion of international tourism. Because of their insecure financial condition and social status, as well as their exposure to sexually transmitted diseases and other threats, these women rely greatly on mutual help. As Denise Brennan has documented in her study, these informal networks form an extended family for poor women and sex workers and help them keep the household running. They often lend each other money for non-budgeted expenses or babysit the children of coworkers. There are also more official networks for the progress of women's rights, such as the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), which is based in Santo Domingo; the Central American Women's Network (CAWN); the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN); and Women's Network of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).

These networks and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have tried to cooperate with governmental campaigns addressing the health of women and sex education to prevent unwanted pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases. However, the official proposition that the reformed constitution should have an article stating that “the right to life is inviolable from the moment of conception until death” angered these organizations. They found that the article represented a violation of women's rights and asked for its repeal.

Social networks were of crucial importance for the sustained migratory flow, mainly toward the United States, that characterized the history of the Dominican Republic in the second half of the 20th century. Close family ties and the access to an extended set of relations were central in the process of migration for Dominicans. Contrary to the usual stereotypes about immigrants, studies have concluded that the majority of Dominicans leaving their country were middle class and had a good education, sometimes even at the university level. Dominican immigrants created social networks in the United States, but they also maintained their old ties in their native land, either encouraging their members to follow them or, more rarely, trying to regain access through them back into Dominican society. Dominicans used immigrant social networks to exchange goods, services, money, and information across geographical borders. Male immigrants experienced a greater tension than women between the demands of their household in the United States and the [Page 220]values of their native community. While the social status of male immigrants was defined by their ability to find a more respectable and a better-paying job, women continued to be defined in terms of the domestic sphere. Yet, within this sphere, analysis of Dominican immigrant networks shows that the women's status in the United States improved considerably and that they were more involved in decision making regarding the household budget, the education of their children, and their social lives outside the home. Facebook has quickly become the most popular social networking site, putting Hi5 in second position, followed by Twitter.

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