Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner
Between the LinesShow Notes
In this episode of the IDS podcast Between the Lines, IDS Research Fellow Tony Roberts interviews Eve Hayes de Kalaf, author of the book Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner.
The author discusses amongst other things; What motivated them to write the book? And what stories of lived experiences were important in developing this book? Listen to the episode
About the author Eve Hayes de Kalaf is a research associate based at the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures, University of Liverpool and a fellow of the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London.
About the interviewer Dr. Tony Roberts is a Research Fellow in the Digital and Technology cluster at the Institute of Development Studies. He has been working at the intersection of digital technologies, international development and social justice since 1988 as a volunteer, lecturer, practitioner, trustee and researcher.
About the book Over the next ten years, states are carrying out large-scale registrations in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs aim to provide more than one billion people around the world with evidentiary proof of their legal and, increasingly, digital existence by 2030.
This book identifies a connection between the role of international actors, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, in promulgating the universal provision of legal identity and links these with arbitrary measures to restrict access to citizenship paperwork from migrant-descended populations.
The book provides the definitive analysis of the events leading up to the controversial 2013 Constitutional Tribunal ruling that rendered the Dominican plaintiff Juliana Deguis Pierre stateless. Hayes de Kalaf illustrates how measures that purposely blocked people of Haitian ancestry from accessing their legal identity not only affected undocumented and stateless populations – persons living at the fringes of citizenship – but also had a major impact on documented people; Dominicans already in possession of a state-issued birth certificate, national identity card and/or passport.
The book illustrates the complex and contradictory ways in which ID systems are experienced, thus challenging the assumption within current development policy that the provision of ID to everyone, everywhere will lead to the inclusion of all citizens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Between the Lines
The sudden collapse of USAID in 2025 sent shockwaves through Uganda’s HIV response and the people hardest hit are those the system was already failing.
As climate shocks become more frequent across East and Southern Africa, building resilience is critical to reducing poverty and improving wellbeing.
African countries must work more closely together at regional and continental levels if they are to overcome barriers to innovation and drive sustainable development, experts have warned.
Social protection is seen as a solution to many problems of development, including poverty, food insecurity and access to services. But we also know that social protection has its limitations. So how do we justify getting Governments to invest in social protection programmes rather than investing in infrastructure or job creation or other services like health and education?
IDS was recently honoured to welcome the Hon. Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Dr Harini Amarasuriya to mark the 60th anniversary of IDS. She shared her journey from her career as an academic and an activist before entering politics and being elected as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 2024.