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

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

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Graph of Cubans coming to Florida (Image)

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Graph of Cubans coming to Florida (Image)

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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After the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959, a Cuban exodus began as the new government allied itself with the Soviet Union and began to introduce communism. From 1960 to 1979, tens of thousands of Cubans left Cuba. In order to provide aid to the immigrants, the US Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1966. The Cuban Refugee Program provided more than $1.3 billion of direct financial assistance. They also were eligible for public assistance, Medicare, free English courses, scholarships, and low-interest college loans. Westchester, Florida within Miami-Dade County, was the area most densely populated by Cubans and Cuban Americans. The places where Cubans made their home, like Miami, experienced a profound cultural impact as a result, as seen in such aspects of their local culture as cuisine, fashion, music, and entertainment. Before the 1980s, all refugees from Cuba were welcomed into the United States as political refugees. This changed in the 1990s so that only Cubans who reach U.S. soil were granted refugee status under the “wet foot, dry foot policy.” This policy essentially says that anyone who emigrated from Cuba and entered the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later. While representing a tightening of U.S. immigration policy, the wet foot, dry foot policy afforded Cubans a privileged position relative to other immigrants to the U.S.

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Cuban Migration to the US is an example of international migration because the migrants moved away from their place of usual residence and crossed a separate international border to a different country (the US.)

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Cuban migration is an example of an immigration wave because there were far more people migrating to the US than the normal amount.

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This migration was voluntary because the Cubans that had the resources to escape to America before Castro could seize their personal property decided that they wanted to get out quickly while they still could.

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This law states that every migration flow generates a return or counter migration. The massive migration of Cubans into southern Florida may have been a factor in the internal migration (within the US) of many other Caucasian Miami residents who felt they were being displaced. Therefore, Cuban migration relates to this law.

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This law states that the majority of migrants move a short distance. Given that a large quantity of Cuban immigrants decided to settle in Florida, this actually is a fairly short distance. For example, the distance from Havana, Cuba to Miami, Florida is only 229 miles. Therefore, Cuban migration relates to this law.

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Once many of the initial Cuban migrants to the US had achieved  resident permanent status, they would petition to have their spouses, children, or siblings to also come to the US. These people would tend to settle in the same area, thus resulting in chain migration.

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Push factors tended to push people out of Cuba and towards other countries such as rather US. The push factors in the past 60 years included things such as fear of losing property, fear of poverty, and fear of unemployment.

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Factors that tended to pull Cubans towards the United States included the freedom and opportunity available in the US, along with the stability of the US government.

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This law states that migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city locations. The most significant community that Cubans chose was the large city of Miami, Florida. However, as mentioned previously, they did not travel a long distance to get there. Therefore, Cuban migration partly relates to this law.

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This law states that urban residents are less migratory than rural residents. Since the first batches of Cubans leaving Cuba were wealthy landowners, they were most likely rural inhabitants because that is where more land would be available for them to own. Therefore, Cuban migration relates to this law.

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This law states that families are less likely to make international moves than young adults. The first wave of Cuban immigrants tended to be wealthy landowners or wealthy professionals such as doctors. These would not tend to be young adults since most young adults haven’t established significant levels of wealth yet. So for the first waves of Cuban immigrants after Castro, it appears that they were generally not young adults. Therefore, Cuban migration does not relate to this law.