A leading Dominican research institution is breaking new ground in the highly charged national debate over migration and cross-border ties with neighboring Haiti, announcing plans Wednesday to carry out the country’s first data-driven comprehensive socioeconomic analysis of the bilateral relationship.
The Dominican Center for Strategic Thinking, a multidisciplinary collective of domestic experts led by prominent geopolitical scholar and professor Manuel Cruz, aims to inject objective, verifiable evidence into a public discourse that has long been dominated by partisan polarization and emotional rhetoric. By grounding discussions in official, peer-reviewable statistics, the organization hopes to create a more informed foundation for policy and public conversation around one of the country’s most contentious issues.
At the core of the research design is a nationally representative public opinion survey of 4,000 Dominican residents, which will capture varied public attitudes, perceptions and experiences related to Haitian migration and the current state of the shared border. Beyond public sentiment, the study will aggregate granular administrative data from across government agencies to map the full scope of cross-border people-to-people ties and state spending related to border management.
Specific data requests include a full breakdown of visas issued to Haitian citizens from 2020 through August 2026, sorted by travel purpose such as tourism, temporary employment, and academic study. Researchers will also audit total government expenditure on border security, itemizing costs for logistics, fuel, rations for security personnel, irregular migration interdiction operations, and deportation proceedings. Additional datasets will cover the number of Haitian students enrolled in Dominican public and private education institutions, public spending on the national migration regularization plan, and birth records at Dominican public hospitals disaggregated by parental migration status.
Center leadership confirmed that formal information requests will be submitted to all relevant government agencies in the coming weeks, with a final report of findings scheduled for public release before the end of 2026. The non-partisan institution, which brings together professionals across multiple academic and policy fields, focuses on evidence-based geopolitical analysis, public policy research, and institutional strengthening initiatives designed to advance broad national well-being for the Dominican people.