The
Dominican Republic's population is 73% mixed-race, 16% white, and 11% black.[1][96] Ethnic immigrant groups in the country include
West Asians—mostly
Lebanese,
Syrians and
Palestinians.
[97]
Numerous immigrants have come from other Caribbean countries, as the country has offered economic opportunities. There are about 30,000
Jamaicans living in the Dominican Republic.
[98] There is an increasing number of
Puerto Rican immigrants, especially in and around
Santo Domingo; they are believed to number around 10,000.
[99][100] There are over 700,000 people of Haitian descent, including a generation born in Dominican Republic. In October 2013, the Court ruled that people with illegal parents could not be considered residents, even if born in the Dominican Republic. This ruling cuts them out of many programs and makes them stateless, as many young people of Haitian descent have never lived anywhere else.
[101]
East Asians, primarily
ethnic Chinese and
Japanese, can also be found.
[97] Europeans are represented mostly by Spanish,
German Jews,
Italians,
Swiss,
Portuguese, British,
Dutch,
Danes, and
Hungarians.
[97][102][103] Some converted
Sephardic Jews from Spain were part of early expeditions; only Catholics were allowed to come to the New World.
[104] Later there were Jewish migrants coming from Iberia and Europe in the 1700s.
[105] Some managed to reach the Caribbean as refugees during and after the
Second World War.
[106][107][108] Some Sephardic Jews reside in
Sosúa while others are dispersed throughout the country. Self-identified Jews number about 3,000; other Dominicans may have some Jewish ancestry because of marriages among converted Jewish Catholics and other Dominicans since the colonial years. Some Dominicans born in the United States now reside here, creating a kind of expatriate community.
[109]