The aroma of Haitian feast — pork griot, djon djon rice, fried plantains — drifted through the break room of a metal shop in Springfield, Ohio.
It was Wilford Rinvil’s goodbye gift to his co-workers.
For four years, Mr. Rinvil, a Haitian immigrant, had pressed steel into car parts at McGregor Metal. While the work was grueling, it offered a stable income, health insurance, a 401(k). And Mr. Rinvil, who turns 46 this week, thrived there, relieved to be away from his home country, which had descended into lawlessness and gang violence.
“He would do anything in the world for you,” said Lance Beale, the production supervisor.
But Mr. Rinvil’s sense of security began to unravel after President Trump took office and moved to dismantle protections for Haitian immigrants.
He expected the administration to revoke his work permit. And with deportation a real possibility, Mr. Rinvil packed up his hard-won life and moved this month to Canada.
“You leave your home to survive, you do everything right,” he said in an interview four days before his departure. But “they don’t like you, they don’t want you.”
Mr. Rinvil was among more than 10,000 Haitians who in recent years settled in this working-class city of 60,000. They were welcomed by a Republican governor and business leaders who needed workers to power companies that had been enticed to invest millions here. Over the last four years, Springfield had rebounded, thanks in large part to the arrival of Haitian immigrants.
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The post An Ohio City Faces a Future Without Haitian Workers: ‘It’s Not Going to Be Good’ appeared first on New York Times.
