Without concrete data, Wilson said people will “insert whatever narrative they want into it, and you can’t counter it.”
The survey will allow policymakers to “take a very practical or pragmatic” approach to addressing challenges, Wilson said.
“I believe wholeheartedly that if we do this right and we’re actually able to get — I’d like to say — mass participation, as much participation as possible from our Haitian friends doing the survey, it will actually give us information that we can use to ... argue our case for why our Haitian brothers and sisters are of value to this community ...” Wilson said.
The survey comes as the Trump administration is cracking down on immigration, both legal and illegal. It ended the program through which many Haitians entered the U.S. and announced an end date to Temporary Protected Status six months earlier than expected.
Springfield and Clark County officials have been relying on data from the local Department of Job and Family Services and the Clark County Combined Health District to calculate the number of Haitians in Springfield, believed to be between 12,000 and 15,000. Not every Haitian immigrant seeks assistance from the health department or DJFS, so it is difficult to set an exact number.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
DJFS data from February 2022 to February 2025 show a growth in Haitian immigrants receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, from February 2022 to July 2024 before a steady decline.
The Haitian community survey, comprising six pages, includes questions related to gender, age, whether a person is a parent, marital status, education level, health insurance, healthcare, occupational skills, jobs, driving ability and training, housing and reasons for coming to the U.S. It also asks what type of support Haitian immigrants most need in the U.S.
Asking about occupational skills and training could be particularly helpful for finding people close to a degree, who may be “three classes at Clark State away from being a nurse in the hospital and working with this community,” said Lee Hannah, political science professor at Wright State.
Hannah is leading the effort from the college’s side. Several students in masters of public administration program are conducting the survey and are expected to release results in late April or early May once their term is over. Hannah said he will keep the survey open and continue to monitor responses.
“We’ll give it in our community and then we will distribute it in all sorts of ways, and we can come out and give talks on it as well,” Hannah said. “We’re also going to give that information to our Haitian partners, and we want them to be able to use that information to tell the community, like ‘Here’s kind of what’s at stake. This is why we’re here, this is what we bring to the community, this is what this community stands to lose if we just kind of sit idly by.‘”
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
The survey is anonymous and will not collect any data that will make respondents identifiable, Hannah said. Responses will begin analysis April 10.
The state has poured resources like targeted driving enforcement, driving simulators and primary care support into Springfield since late last year.
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