“No one wants to leave their native country,” said Dady Fanfan, President of the Haitian Community Alliance in Springfield Ohio

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“No one wants to leave their native country,” said Dady Fanfan, President of the Haitian Community Alliance in Springfield Ohio

Dady Fanfan, a Haitian real estate agent who came to Springfield in 2020. BILL LACKEY/STAFF

No government program placed 15,000 Haitians in Springfield. They came because they wanted to. For them, Springfield is a land of opportunity.

An opportunity to escape violence in their homeland.

“No one wants to leave their native country,” said Dady Fanfan, a Haitian real estate agent who came to Springfield in 2020. “But a lot of bad things are happening right now because of the gangsters.”

To find work in an area with affordable housing.

“We’re working here, we’re paying taxes here. We’re just trying to pursue a better life. We come here to work and to get what we want, not to get something we don’t work for. We work to get a better life. That’s why we come here,” said Marco Petit-Frere, speaking through an interpreter at Clark County Combined Health District last week.

To build a community.

The immigrant population here today has become the subject of national controversy, amplified by debunked claims by former president Donald Trump that Haitians are eating people’s pets. Misinformation is running rampant, spreading fear in certain segments of the community and overshadowing discussion of how to address real challenges caused by the sudden influx of a population with particular needs.

This story is about how this population came to live here, and the role that federal policy does play.

Reporting by the Springfield News-Sun has documented that the influx of Haitian immigrants picked up during the pandemic, when local employers were desperate for workers. Companies saw an opportunity to tap into Haitian communities in other parts of the country — many in those communities were legally in the U.S. and had work permits — to fill that gap.

Full article: https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/the-true-story-about-why-and-how-haitian-immigrants-came-to-springfield/VOJOZYVU6REMZOFXZOEQQ5RNNU/

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