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In 1959, Fidel Castro led a revolution and took over the Cuban government. While he had most of the citizen’s support at first, his communist policies caused many to move to the United States. There were four main waves of migration. The first one took place between 1959 and 1962. The majority of these people either supported the previous government, or they were wealthy citizens who were getting their property taken away. From 1965 to 1974, Castro had tightened his policies and gotten rid of almost all private property. President Lyndon B Johnson introduced Freedom Flights which took Cubans to Miami 10 times a week, transporting over 300,000 people into the United States. In 1980, 125,000 Cubans traveled to Florida through the newly opened port, El Mariel. From 1993-5, Cuba experienced an economic crisis caused by the collapsing of the Soviet Union. Tens of thousands of Cubans used rafts to float onto US shores during this time period.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Why 125,000 People Fled From Cuba to Florida in 1980

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1. International Migration- Immigrants had to cross country borders to move from Cuba to the United States.
2. Periodic Movement- Many Cubans expected their movement to be periodic and to return to Cuba after Castro’s rule. However, most chose to stay in the United States permanently.
3. Chain Migration- People from Cuba followed each other to the United States and settled in similar areas. This caused the majority of Cuban immigrants to live in southern Florida, specifically Miami.
4. Push Factors- The people of Cuba wanted to leave to escape the unrest, harsh policies, overpowering government, and economic struggles in their home country.
5. Immigration Wave- Cuban immigration to the US in the mid to late 1900s was an example of an immigration wave. Hundreds of thousands of people followed each other and came to the US from the same place.
6. Immigration laws- In the 1900s, laws were enacted to make it easier for Cubans to become citizens of the United States. This includes the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 and the wet foot, dry foot policy of 1995.

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Every migration flow generates a return or counter-migration.
This law does not really apply as Cubans left due to a bad political and economic situation. Some people have went back , but Cuba’s negative net migration rate shows that more people are leaving than coming in.

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Majority of migrants move a short distance.
The majority of Cubans migrated to one of the closest and easily accessible places, southern Florida.

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Migrants who move long distances tend to choose big-city destinations.
The majority of Cuban immigrants live in southern Florida. This includes the city of Miami where a third of the population is Cuban.

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Urban residents are less migratory than rural residents.
It is hard to know where in Cuba most of the immigrants were coming from due to the lenient immigration laws at the time. Most people left Cuba in certain areas that were closest to the US, but it is hard to tell where they lived. An example is the El Mariel port, located outside of Havana, where the Mariel Boat Lift happened. This port was opened up for 6 months and helped over a hundred thousand Cubans emigrate. Also, people left from Varadero, a town on the coast of Cuba, as that is where the Freedom Flights took off.

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Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.
People were moving from Cuba to the US out of need, so this law does not fully apply. For example, 14000 children arrived in the US from Cuba from 1960-2. It was more that people left in waves by economic status with the upper and middle class leaving first.