On South Limestone Street in Springfield, Ohio, a new batch of cafes, bakeries and shops have opened. On nearby footpaths, a new language – Haitian Creole – is heard increasingly. Nearby neighbourhoods that were had been silent for decades are now bustling.
This unassuming area in the relatively small city has become a focal point for anti-immigration rage after Republican nominee Donald Trump claimed during the presidential debate on Tuesday night that immigrants in Springfield were stealing and eating people's pets.
“In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats,” the former president claimed. “They're eating the pets of the people that live there.”
For Patrick Joseph, a Haitian interpreter who came to Springfield in 2021, the false assertions felt like a gut punch.
“We see the stuff people are writing on social media and we know it is untrue, but it affects us,” he says. “Anything they say that a Haitian did, about our culture, that affects us a lot,” he says. “It makes me worried, to be honest.”
The pet-eating myth was quickly debunked, with local police and the city’s mayor denying they had received credible reports that any such an event had occurred. The rumours may stem from an incident that occurred in Canton, Ohio, last month that involved an American woman with mental health issues who was arrested for killing and eating a cat.
More misinformation, involving a photo of a person holding a dead goose that was claimed in social media posts to have been a Haitian in Springfield, was actually taken in Columbus, Ohio, in July.
But white supremacists, X chief executive Elon Musk and Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio native JD Vance have latched on to the idea, falsely claiming on social media that illegal Haitian immigrants in Springfield were responsible.
For the most part, Haitians in Springfield, most of whom have come to the US legally through receiving Temporary Protected Status, chose the city for its cheap housing and plentiful unskilled jobs, many of which do not require advanced English skills.
Many live 10 or more to a house, splitting the cost of rent, so that they can save money and send more back to family in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
In a town where derelict homes and abandoned shopfronts had been a growing part of the urban tapestry for decades, the arrival of Haitian and other immigrants to work in local factories, packaging plants and produce facilities from 2017 were, for some, a welcome change.
Caribbean shops, cafes and restaurants catering to the rapidly growing Haitian community quickly sprang up. Churches and Haitian Creole-language radio stations quickly followed.
In 2023, Springfield held its first Haitian Flag Day, and city leaders and Haitians gathered to celebrate their homeland, which has been mired in turmoil and brutal gang violence since its former president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in July 2021.
But the raising of the Haitian flag alongside that of the US drew the ire of some long-time Springfield residents.
Then on the first day of school in August 2023, a boy, 11, was killed when his school bus crashed after swerving to avoid an oncoming car driven by a Haitian immigrant who had no Ohio driver’s licence. The man was sentenced to between nine and 13.5 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide last May.
Despite the tragedy, the boy’s family has spent the past year calling for politicians and Springfield residents to refrain from using their child’s death to fan the flames of hate towards immigrants.
The sheer number of immigrants descending in such a short time has quickly overwhelmed the city of 58,000. One local healthcare centre reported that its phone and online translation expenses went from $4,000 in 2018 to about $400,000 last year.
The wave of immigrants, some locals claimed, was evidence that the city was front and centre in the “great replacement”, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that pushes the idea that white populations in western countries are being replaced.
As they flood into the country, critics say they soak up resources and receive money from the government for nothing in return. But those at the forefront of the city’s care services paint a very different picture.
Casey Rollins, executive director of the charity Springfield's St Vincent de Paul, says that for the most part, assistance for Haitian immigrants is limited to Medicaid – healthcare support – and food stamps.
“A huge number of our immigrants in Springfield were not given cash at all initially,” she says. “They came here with only their savings.”
Immigrants who receive official government support are required to learn English and volunteer. She believes that only about 1,800 were eligible to receive separate refugee resettlement cash assistance, and those people are required to keep a job and pay taxes.
“Much of their pay, after caring for their immediate families here, goes back to assist other family members [in Haiti],” she says. “And that’s why so many Haitians were getting robbed outside of banks when they took their cash to Western Union.”
Margery Koveleski, an American who has family ties Haiti and has been helping Haitians with their Temporary Protected Status applications, says: “Ever since Tuesday, they are all afraid. They have all travelled so much and when they get here, they can’t believe they are not wanted.
“There are two things Haitians want: safety and a job.”
But efforts by Ms Koveleski and others to help ease the immigrants' transition to life in the US have been growing.
Ohio’s governor has pledged $2.5 million for healthcare resources and police to help Springfield manage the needs of its new and existing residents. Local authorities have established a transport project to help Haitian workers without driving permits to get to and from work, and last November, two driver education seminars were held in the Haitian Creole language.
But with the national spotlight firmly on Springfield, and right-wing politicians and personalities likely to continue to take aim at immigrants before November’s elections, community members say there is still a lot of unease.
“For Haitians who don’t understand English, when they hear in the supermarket or streets the word ‘Haitian’ they get scared,” says Mr Joseph.
“They think that people have something against us.”
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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1. Japan - Played 3, Won 3, Points 14
2. Ireland - Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, Points 11
3. Scotland - Played 2, Won 1, Lost 1, Points 5
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Scotland v Russia – Wednesday, 11.15am
Ireland v Samoa – Saturday, 2.45pm
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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SPECS
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
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White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
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Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
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Castle in the Sky (1986)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
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Pom Poki (1994)
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Four tips to secure IoT networks
Mohammed Abukhater, vice president at FireEye in the Middle East, said:
- Keep device software up-to-date. Most come with basic operating system, so users should ensure that they always have the latest version
- Besides a strong password, use two-step authentication. There should be a second log-in step like adding a code sent to your mobile number
- Usually smart devices come with many unnecessary features. Users should lock those features that are not required or used frequently
- Always create a different guest network for visitors
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Director: Ruben Fleischer
Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
Four out of five stars
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
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Result
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-3 – Group 1 (PA) $65,000 (Dirt) 2,000m; Winner: Brraq, Ryan Curatolo (jockey), Jean-Claude Pecout (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) $65,000 (Turf) 1,800m; Winner: Bright Melody, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
7.40pm: Meydan Classic – Listed (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Naval Crown, Mickael Barzalona, Charlie Appleby
8.15pm: Nad Al Sheba Trophy – Group 3 (TB) $195,000 (T) 2,810m; Winner: Volcanic Sky, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
8.50pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Star Safari, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm: Meydan Challenge – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Zainhom, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
