Statelessness in the Caribbean. Kristy A. Belton
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Figure 4. Renunciation peaks before 2007 and 2012 Bahamian general elections.
When you are close to the election, it [the number of renunciations] rose. After the election, here, the number is almost close to zero a month. And when you go getting close to the election, there’s a peak. There’s a peak. In this formulation of 2002, 2007, and 2012 you can see that. So each government … before the election, they issue a lot of citizenships.
The politicized nature of Bahamian citizenship bestowal is not merely reflected in data held at the Haitian Embassy or in Bahamian newspaper articles, however. As the study participants make clear, obtaining Bahamian citizenship is often predicated on knowing someone in the Department of Immigration or elsewhere in government who can do you the “favor” of granting you citizenship. Formal politics and informal personal connections thus have an equally significant influence on citizenship decisions in The Bahamas.
Bureaucratic Failures
Describing the reality of Latin American politics, Taylor states that “the only way to get anything done is to ‘pay an extra fee’ or ask a ‘friend’ to cut through the red tape on your behalf” (Taylor 2004, 213). Taylor may as well have been writing about the Bahamian case as her quote aptly captures one of the problems associated with bureaucratic failure in The Bahamas: going through official channels, and following the rules to acquire the “good” of citizenship does not necessarily translate into the most efficient way to obtain Bahamian citizenship. As artist Bernard Petit-Homme explains, he applied for Bahamian citizenship when he turned eighteen, but it took him three years to acquire citizenship, despite being born in the country and meeting all the requirements. He thinks it probably would have taken longer to acquire Bahamian citizenship if he had not run into a former high-ranking government official who had a friend in the Department of Immigration who was able to act on Petit-Homme’s application. “They called me the following week to say it is ready. So that’s how I got it,” he says.21
Desmangles similarly observes that “It’s all about networking and who knows who in some instances.” He adds that in his case, “it came to a point where I had to think for myself, ‘Who do I know out there? Who can assist me? Who can make this possible?’”22 Bianca Zaiem, born of noncitizen parents in The Bahamas, also remarks that “a lot of people get citizenship by doing favors for other people. And I feel like that’s hurt us over the years. So normal people like me who want to do it the right way are pushed aside for somebody who’s getting a favor done by somebody else.”23 Natacha Jn-Simon, a College of The Bahamas student, adds that sometimes these “favors” take on a more sinister tone:
You know what they have the Haitian kids subduing to? It’s like okay, I’m a female, right, and you’re in Parliament or [you’re] someone who is connected with government. And let’s say you see me on the road or something, and you see that I look nice. And people have to realize that just as they say poverty is like a state of mind, you feel encapsulated, wherever you see a way out, it’s what you’re gonna do. So when these young ladies see these men [who say], “Oh, I’m gonna help you. I’m gonna do this for you. I’m gonna help you do this.” That’s how a lot of them get their citizenship you know. This guy said, “Okay, well, just be my friend.” You understand? “I have friends, I know people in immigration. I could get your stuff out.” It’s sad.24
Table 2: Participants Born to Noncitizens in The Bahamas
*Name changed to protect anonymity, as per interviewee’s request.
aDolce says, “I think I applied at 18,” but is unsure as he “wasn’t kind of interested anymore” because of the way the Department of Immigration was treating him at the time. He admits, however, that “at a certain point you say, ‘Listen here, okay, I am going to do it.’ You have to comply and complain afterwards.”
bDumercy began the process at eighteen but due to a number of complications submitted her application three days after she turned nineteen. As a result, she had to begin the process again, but under a new procedure—naturalization—with additional requirements and costs since she had missed the one year window in which to apply via registration.
As illustrated in Table 2, most Bahamian-born participants of noncitizen parents waited several years to hear back from the Department of Immigration on their citizenship application. Desmangles believes this is not uncommon. He thinks maybe one out of a hundred applicants will acquire their citizenship three to six months after they apply for it, but the other “99 of them, they’re gonna have to wait until five years to get it.” Ambassador Rodrigue notes that if a person applies for citizenship after the one-year mark beginning at age eighteen then “It can take up to 12 years. I’ve had people say they were waiting for 12 years. It can take 5 years, 8 years, 10 years. Because now you are going through another type of process. Between 18 and 19, it’s like almost a natural or normal process to get it. But after 18, after 19, I don’t know.”25
While in Nassau, I was able to read an award of citizenship letter from the Bahamian government that was dated May 21, 2012. The person to whom the letter was addressed had applied for Bahamian citizenship on May 2, 1997. It took a decade and a half for the Department of Immigration to make a decision on that individual’s application.26 Whether or not this is an example of an extreme situation, Marie St. Cecile, born in The Bahamas to Haitian parents, remarks that her parents were able to acquire Bahamian citizenship before she did. St. Cecile did not apply for Bahamian citizenship at eighteen because “I basically didn’t know that I should, that you should apply at 18 at that time. So I applied late.”27 She adds that she thought that “once I applied, I would automatically get it because of my age and all that stuff,” but that this was not the case. She had to wait eight years for the Bahamian government to give her citizenship and, in that time, her Haitian-born parents obtained Bahamian citizenship:
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