The 13th largest immigrant population, there are roughly 3,300Haitian immigrants in Philadelphia. These people tend to live in close proximity to Dominicans in the Lawncrest/Summerdale, Juniata Park/Feltonville, Olney, Ogontz, Oxford Circle, West Oak Lane and Cedarbrook neighborhoods.

There have been two major waves of immigration from Haiti to the United States, and more specifically to Philadelphia. The first wave of Haitians came in the 1950's and 1960's. These people were typically middle class and upper class citizens that opposed the rule of François Duvalier. The second wave of immigrants came in the 1970's. These people were generally members of the lower class and rural communities that were trying to escape economic hardship. During this wave, the first reports of Haitians arriving in the US by boat without documentation occurred. After this account in 1972, Haitians were nicknamed the "boat people."

Being fairly large, there are plenty of organizations that help support Philadelphia's Haitian community. One such organization is The Haitian Community Help Center. This organization provides such services as immigration counseling and referrals, job preparation and job placement, document translation, recreational services to different age groups, after-school tutoring, GED/ESL classes, beginner computer classes, a mentoring service for young Haitians who need assistance successfully and gracefully transitioning from Haitian to American culture, and more. If you are interested in working with the Haitian community through Project SHINE, you may want to consider working at the Life Changing Community Center.

For more information about Philadelphia's Haitian community and the organizations that serve them, please visit:

http://countrystudies.us/haiti/22.htm
This is a profile on Haitian migration completed by Country Studies

http://www.haitixchange.com/hx/article.asp?article_id=77
This is an article about the Haitian Unity Day that was held in Philadelphia

http://www.haitianchc.org/
This is the website of the Haitian Community Help Center (mentioned above)

"Recent Trends in Immigration to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" by Fels Institute of Government at Univeristy of Penn
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/fels/philapopulation.htm
This document contains a brief history of the immigration patterns of this population in Philadelphia, why this population came here, and what parts of the city they live in now.

The World Fact Book
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
This CIA website contains an extremely large amount of information about all of the countries in the world such as: history, geography, information about its citizens, government, economy, transnational issues, and more. To find out information about this country, pull it down from the menu.