mal workers’ income (FASE I and II Programs) and subsidies for informal workers (“Quédate en casa” [Stay at Home] and “Pa ‘Ti” [For you]). Some social protection and humanitarian services have been cross-cutting, such as the expansion of “Solidarity” program benefits and delivery of food rations in the communities. Moreover health protocols are in place to protect workers as they reincorporate into the workplace or remain in partial work mode, and stimuli have been offered to essential sectors like food production. “With the measures taken in March to confront COVID-19, 75% of the PNRE population [regularized migrants] had lost their income. The remaining 25% corresponds to the food sector all throughout its production and distribution chain, and domestic services, which have been less affected. Three out of every four PNRE migrants, about 144,413, have lost their income ... The PNRE population that has lost income and jobs is not covered in the measures to mitigate the economic impact. ‘Quédate en casa’, ‘FASE’ and ‘PA’TI’ are aimed at the Dominican population living in poverty and those who have lost their formal jobs.” Source: Chief of Mission of the IOM, Santo Domingo as quoted in País Dominicano Temático, July 2020. Among study participants, their inclusion in COVID-19 relief social protection measures fundamentally depends on their type of documentation and legal status. Those who are ineligible may be able to access assistance from NGOs and international humanitarian organizations, although coverage is not universal. It appears that the government has come to rely on NGOs filling in the gaps to provide emergency aid for the stateless or migrants, sidestepping state responsibilities towards people residing in its territory but who do not currently have Dominican documentation. Nadia, a 25-year-old stateless woman and mother of three stateless children, laments the exclusion of undocumented people from government programs to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Despite having registered for naturalization following the passage of Law 169-14 in 2014 and receiving a regularization card, she does not appear on the list of the 50 people that the president authorized for naturalization, among the 7,147 descendants of Haitian migrants who were registered and approved in 2014/2015. Her naturalization card is now expired, with no procedures in place for renewal or naturalization as Dominican citizens. She feels discriminated against by not receiving official assistance during the coronavirus crisis. “In this pandemic the government has helped many people. Those who have an identity card are getting food and monthly deposits of funds. Any kind of help goes to those with documents, and those without get nothing. My [Dominican] mother-in-law and neighbours receive funds on their card [government social assistance programme]. Whenever they are going to distribute something, they say it’s for people with documents and those without shouldn’t come. I feel so bad. Sometimes it really weighs on me. Sometimes I say, look how the people with identity cards are getting food, and if I had gotten my ID, I would be getting funds and food for my children.” Jean, a 48-year-old migrant in the PNRE who has residency in the country, is disappointed that he is not receiving government assistance. He describes his situation as follows: “We who are in the [PNRE] Plan ... we who have residence, I thought they would help us, but they have not helped us ... I thought that at least one day they would tell you: take a pound of sugar, but no ... No, because my ID is a foreigner’s ID. They send it directly to those with their [national] identity card. There are those who have the ‘Eat first’ card, those people are benefiting, but we as foreigners are not...” In contrast, Margarita, a 39-year-old Dominican woman of Haitian descent who has never had problems with her documents, has experienced much more of the positive side of government assistance. She notes that: “The ‘Quédate en Casa’ program has helped some people in the community a lot. My mom doesn’t have it, but I do. So with mine we buy and share here at my mom’s house because my husband is in the capital. The ‘Pa’Ti’ one worked out for my mom. They give you five thousand pesos a month. And some people from the community, too, those who don’t have ‘Quédate en Casa’, got the monthly ‘Pa’Ti’, and they get five thousand pesos. And there was other aid for people over 60 years of age who Research Brief: COVID-19 Impacts on Haitian Migrants and their Descendants on the Southern Border of the D.R. 25