Part III: Recent Developments Political Refugees or Economic Immigrants?: A New "Old Debate" within the Haitian Immigrant Communities but with Contestations and Division

CAROLLE CHARLES

"REFUGEE" CATEGORIES ARE usually understood and used as political categories that defined the status of distinct population groups. Usually, they refer to a type of forced migration. The definition presumes that the displaced people involved in the process are not the free agents of their predicaments; they are rather the victims. Moreover, these categories are rooted within the world-political system, reflecting state-to-state relations and/or states-and-citizens relationships. Thus, these political categories of political status are also categories of otherness. As such, not only are they expressions of relations of power but they also epitomized systems of exclusion and practices of marginalization. Consequently, they are subject to contention, resistance, and/or adaptation. Those in positions to define who are refugees as well as those being defined as refugees can manipulate these categories as they fit their own interests and agendas.