The Haitian diaspora in France — concentrated in Paris and its suburbs, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana — found itself caught between two crises in 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic that was devastating France while also spreading in Haiti, and the continuing political and humanitarian crisis in their homeland that was generating new waves of displacement and migration.
France’s Haitian community had roots stretching back generations, with newer arrivals joining established families that had been in France since the colonial era. The community’s size and long establishment gave it significant cultural and political presence, but it also meant that many members had strong family connections in Haiti and were profoundly affected by developments there.
The French government’s COVID response, while more robust than Haiti’s, still had significant failures in the overseas departments where large Haitian communities lived. Martinique and Guadeloupe experienced COVID outbreaks that their health systems were challenged to manage, with the same inequalities in health access that characterized French metropolitan society reproduced in these Caribbean contexts.
Haitian French community organizations maintained pressure on both governments throughout 2020, calling on France to increase development assistance to Haiti and to use its diplomatic leverage to support a democratic resolution to the political crisis. They also advocated for the rights of undocumented Haitian migrants in France who faced particular vulnerabilities during the pandemic.