Cuban Immigration Problems

Thirty-seven years to the date April 20th, 2017, Fidel Castro enacted the policy of the Mariel boatlift, in which he’d allow Cubans seeking to emigrate to the United States to do so by departing at Mariel. This number would eventually eclipse 125,000 people seeking asylum and refuge from Cuba, and the regime in which at one point they felt represented or directly opposed their own viewpoints. The first wave of Cuban exiles being the extremely wealthy, in direct opposition to Fidel Castro’s regime for a race-less society, and a single-class economy, government, and social order. The ultimatum being set at you’re with the revolution or you’re not, this encouraged former supporters of the now ousted Batista, to seek refuge in the United States.

Even though Cuba is a little under 100 miles away from the United States, the relationship between the two countries has created an atmosphere full of tension and perpetual mistrust. When Fidel Castro decided to align Cuba with the U.S.S.R. and become a communist country, the United States of America was stunned and highly insulted. Because of their relationship, both countries have played a back and forth game of trying to outdo the other. This game and state of affairs in Cuba has created a large influx of Cuban immigrants looking for better opportunities and trying to escape poverty and persecution. This paper will be focusing on Cuban immigrants and examining different Cuban immigration laws, which allowed them to easily become United States citizens, including; the Cuban Adjustment Act, The Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1976 and the Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy. It will also discuss whether the Cuban immigration laws are unfair to other foreign immigrants and whether the laws are relevant today. Finally, we will be considering the future and try to predict how the laws will change with the changing diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States and the imminent removal of the Embargo Act.

It has long been a pattern in the United States that immigrants will assimilate into the culture when they live close to white neighborhoods. Latin American immigrants move throughout the country in different ways. Cubans are an anomaly due to the fact that they live very separated from White Americans even when they have been here for generations (Chaves et al, 2005: 511). Even though they are assimilated into American culture, Cubans still prefer to live in their own communities. This

The study of race relations in contemporary Cuba indelibly requires an understanding of the dynamic history of race relations in this ethnically pervasive island of the Caribbean. Cuban society, due to its historical antecedents of European colonialism and American imperialism, has traditionally experienced anguished and even tumultuous race relations. Racial disharmony has plagued Cuban society ever since the advent of the Colonial institution of the plantation system. Thus, in order to acquire some understanding of Cuba’s dynamic race relations one must study and investigate the evolution of racial tensions and the quintessential

The fall of the Soviet Union ushered in a new era of refugee and immigration policy toward Cubans. The collapse of the Soviet Union also meant the cessation of aid to its satellites. Without Soviet aid, conditions in Cuba steadily deteriorated, and the people of Cuba took to the streets in protest. In 1994, Castro answered the uprising by allowing Cubans to leave the country unmolested, and about thirty thousand obliged by taking boats to the United States. However, prior to the mass exodus, the United States policy towards Cuba was beginning to: "First, with the end of the Cold War, there was less need to embarrass the communist regime in Cuba, although the U.S. maintained its embargo against the island. Second, there was continuing public pressure to limit immigration. Finally, it became apparent to some U.S. officials

Primarily in the volatile South Florida and New York City areas, candidates will take particular care in pleasing Cuban-Americans, as they are a powerful voting bloc that has continually altered elections (Haney, 2010). In the 2000 presidential election, Governor Bush promised to enforce the Helms-Burton law, and won over 80% of the Cuban-American vote in Florida (Congress, 2010). This state officially cast 537 more votes for Bush than for Gore, which means that the Cuban-Americans essentially secured Bush’s victory. Upon assuming office, Bush appointed Cuban-American hard-liner Otto Reich, to a top position in the State Department. The appointment was blocked by the Senate, but Reich eventually a recess appointment. As another act of appreciation, Bush appointed a Cuban-American to Secretary of Housing and

Miami is well known as a city where a lot of immigrants migrate to and continuously grow in numbers. The increase in the Hispanic population is usually due to family ties that influence other members to relocate to the city. Persuasion of a better life and opportunity for their children is what influenced my parents to move to Miami in the mid 1980’s. According to my parents the diversity in languages and cultural background made it

Gustavo Lopez (2013) tells that Hispanics from Cuba are a big proportion of the United States. Cuban Americans are affiliated with Hispanics. (Lopez, 2013) “Cubans in this statistical profile are people who self-identified as Hispanics of Cuban origin; this means either they themselves are Cuban immigrants or they trace their family ancestry to Cuba” (Lopez, 2013, pp.1). In 2013, Gustavo tells that the Cuban population in the United States was very large. (Lopez, 2013) Cubans who live in the United States prefer to be called certain terms (Lopez, 2013). Most often, Cubans prefer the term “Cuban” and only a few Cubans prefer to be termed as an “American” (Lopez, 2013). Also, when the Cubans were asked about being termed “Hispanic” or “Latino,” both terms were not favorable (Lopez, 2013).

To understand current U.S. laws pertaining to Cuban Immigration, one must first understand the origins of this laws and the social history behind these laws. Consequently, in this essay, I trace the origins of the immigration of Cubans from the 1800s to our days and how this immigration influenced the creation of current laws pertaining to Cuban immigration. I have also analyzed the socioeconomic factors that have influenced the immigration of Cubans to the U.S., and the historic events that have shape the U.S. laws pertaining to immigration. For this, I have extensively research the major Cuban Event that, one way or the other, influenced the Cuban Immigration, and promoted changes in the laws pertinent to the Cuban immigration. Some of these

We accepted the immigrants and we still do today but as Anderson states, “Last year, around fifty thousand Cubans entered the United States, a significant increase over the 2015 numbers.” Obama’s goal was to limit the number of Cuban immigrants coming to the United States. Also with a new president, there was fear of what would happen with the relationship. The fear is real as Trump tweeted this regarding the situation, “Unless Raúl Castro’s government made concessions in the area of religious and political freedoms, there would be “no deal” with the U.S. A.” There is doubt with Trump’s true intentions and we will have to see what he will

Section 1, “emigration”, zones in on the three dominant groups of Cubans who immigrated to the U.S., including the millions of Cubans who uprooted their lives and left their country.

Immigration to the United States has been occurring for centuries now. For years people from all different parts of the globe have dreamed of living in the United States, which is known to many foreigners as the land of opportunity. There are so many ethnic groups that exist in the United States that it has become known as the melting pot of the world. The Puerto Rican's migration to the United States was not an easy process. The Puerto Ricans faced discrimination in many walks of life in the USA. They were taken advantage of because they were naive and vulnerable to this new life. Eventually, in the twentieth century, the Puerto Ricans realized that they could stand

Looking around the U.S. everyone has a story on how they got to the country. Some people had it harder than others coming in. United States immigration has been around for a long time. It is something the country has struggled with in the past and present. For the United States, the country has struggled with how much privilege should the immigrants have or how to keep the country safe while letting people in? It is a problem that is still being worked out. Although there are numerous obstacles throughout history regarding this subject, immigrants are what shaped the country to what it is now. Cuba is a country that has had many obstacles in the immigration world.

However, the many outweigh the few as more and more Cubans have experienced the benefits of improved US relations. The Miami Herald states “that 54 percent of Cubans earn $50 to $200 monthly”, but often it was not even enough to provide the essentials such as food and clean drinking water. “Many Cubans have jobs on the side, and in recent years about a half million have joined the ranks of Cuba’s cuentapropistas, or self-employed” in which “the earnings potential for some is considerably more than state salaries.”

In this article, the author Nick mainly addresses the issue of the migration policy between America and Cuba. President Obama recently resumed the diplomatic relations with Cuba, which has led to a surging number of Cuban immigration, especially the illegal immigrants, to the United States, because many Cubans feel afraid that their long-standing immigration privileges as political refugees will no longer exist. Beginning in 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act and the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy allows Cubans to stay in the United States if they touch U.S. soil, and offers permanent residency to Cubans one year after arrival in the United States (Nick. “Fear of”. The Washington Post. 2015). Cuban officials adamantly oppose to these policies, blaming that these policies encourage risky illegal migration, and cause a brain drain. However, the truth is that most new generation of Cuban immigrants are not real “refugees” any more; they actually resemble economic migrants, who come to America to work seasonally, and then return home. Most of the new Cubans arrive today also have obtained legal residency in a third country like Spain, which helps them come to America without U.S. visas, and then apply for asylum identified as Cuban. Thus, there is a debate about the purpose of these newer arrivals and some begin to advocate a “re-examination” of the Adjustment Act.