The Haitian orphanage crisis: Exporting neoliberal family ideals in the debate on vulnerable childhoods in Haiti

Abstract

In light of recent global debates over the dangers of institutionalised orphan care, a new model of family care premised on the trope of family reunification has emerged among Haitian and US faith‐based actors as the best alternative for ensuring vulnerable children's well‐being. This article offers a critical cultural reading of narratives on family reunification in Haiti in social media and advocacy discourse, revealing how this approach privileges Northern assumptions about proper parenting and family life. Not only are these ideas a mismatch with realities in Haiti, they evoke deficit constructions of family and childhood that facilitate the nation's further positioning as a subject of transnational neoliberal governmentality.

African swine fever virus: A re-emerging threat to the swine industry and food security in the Americas

“…It is essential to consider the socio-political conditions of the many nations of the Caribbean. The introduction of ASFV into Haiti and its dissemination throughout the country may increase the strong socio/economic disparities, and long-standing governance problems as well as ecological disturbance due to Natural disasters and uncontrolled COVID-19 infections (Oxford-Analytica, 2020 ; Hoffman, 2021 ). The same could apply for Cuba and other Caribbean nations in geographic proximity (Gorry, 2021 ); the close relationship, international trading and people movement between positive and naive nations could favor ASFV transmission.…”

Global out-of-home childcare and world culture

“…Not only the liberal aspect of DI policy makes it a potential knot of contentions. DI policy is fundamentally based on Western ideas about family and childhood, prioritizing the nuclear family and individualism (Brown et al, 2002; Hoffman, 2021). These ideas are often at odds with cultural and social realities elsewhere (Archambault, 2010; Harlow, 2021; Hoffman, 2021).…”

“…DI policy is fundamentally based on Western ideas about family and childhood, prioritizing the nuclear family and individualism (Brown et al, 2002; Hoffman, 2021). These ideas are often at odds with cultural and social realities elsewhere (Archambault, 2010; Harlow, 2021; Hoffman, 2021). Around the world, traditional extended family and informal kinship care remain important, partly because of the adaptable and flexible nature of these arrangements, which is key in resource-poor societies, where families are likely to face severe social and economic adversity (Brown et al, 2002).…”

“…These ideas are neither universally valued nor practiced (Chin, 2003; McEwen, 2017). In this sense, DI policy is “a key arena for opening up new channels for Northern intervention,” a tool to force countries into compliance with Western standards of childcare and protection (Hoffman, 2021: 2).…”

“…DI is also part of the widely opposed neoliberal agenda. DI reforms are viewed as a mechanism for reducing the role of the state in the realm of childcare service provision and child protection, whereby the responsibility for the provision of care services is shifted back to families and communities (Hoffman, 2021). Here, one can consider similar modernization and deinstitutionalization processes in adult social care.…”