k State, while approximately 35 percent settle in Florida, and most of the remaining 10 percent settle in Washington, D.C.
Of the legal immigrants from Haiti settling in New York State, more than nine tenths reside in New York City, and a similar proportion of those settling in Florida reside in the Miami metropolitan area (Department of Commerce 17). In 1988, thus, approximately 17,200 Haitian immigrants settled in New York City. These Haitian immigrants joined the nearly 28 thousand other Haitian immigrants who had settled in New York City during the 1983 1987 period.
At the beginning of 1990, New York City's foreign born Haitian population numbered approximately 96 thousand, of whom approximately 43 thousand arrived subsequent to 1980. The next largest foreign born Haitian population in the United States at the beginning of 1990 was Miami's at approximately 61 thousand persons. Foreign born Haitians in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of 1990 numbered approximately 17,500 persons, the third largest concentration of foreign born Haitians in the United States.
It is important to emphasize that the available data report foreign born Haitians in the United States. Minority groups in the United States, such as Haitians, tend to have far higher birth rates than that for the general population. Further, many of these minority groups tend to use their native languages to a greater extent than they use English. The 1990 census, as an example, found that 41 percent of the residents of New York City over the age of five years spoke a language other than English when they were at home, and that one fifth of New Yorkers over the age of five years cannot speak English at well or at all (Lin 6). Thus, the total number of Haitians for whom the provision of specialized social services may be required likely far exceeds the number of foreign born Haitians in this country.
In terms of absolute numbers, Haitians settling in New ...