The Making of Cuban Immigration Exceptionalism, 1959–1979

Using the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), this paper investigates the impact of race and ethnicity, class and naturalization on the voter registration and subsequent assimilation of second-generation Caribbean immigrants into the USA. Drawing from both classical and contemporary models of assimilation, I conduct a comparative analysis of Afro-Caribbeans and Cuban immigrants using voter registration as the primary measure of integration. Although the assimilation literature typically characterizes Cubans as upwardly mobile, this study shows that this is not a distinguishing feature for this group because Afro-Caribbeans are gaining higher levels of upward mobility compared to Cubans with respect to political incorporation. Findings suggest that race and ethnicity, class and citizenship status are all significant factors as both Cuban and Afro-Caribbean immigrants assimilate into the USA.

There has been significant research done on the assimilation patterns of immigrants in the US, particularly immigrants of color. However, since fewer studies have focused on Afro-Caribbean and Cuban immigrants, this research extends the literature beyond its current scope by providing a comparative analysis of Haitian and Cuban immigrants, two immigrant groups in Miami, Florida, that have received very little attention comparatively regarding assimilation. Using data from approximately 100 Haitian and Cuban immigrants in and around Little Haiti and Little Havana, the research demonstrates that though both groups are racially and ethnically diverse, assimilation patterns do not prove to be distinctive. Interestingly, the results of this study will also show that for this sample of immigrants, their experiences are relatively similar economically, politically, and culturally. Further, findings challenge classical, segmented and new assimilation theories because they inadequately provide insight on the new wave of immigrants.

Introduction: South Florida has received waves of immigrants from Latin America providing the unique opportunity to identify risk factors responsible for the rising inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) incidence among immigrant Hispanics. Cubans comprise the largest immigrant group in Miami and have arrived in the US in distinct waves. We sought to determine whether IBD onset differed within Cubans in Miami stratified by period of immigration into the US. Methods: We performed a prospective study on adult patients who had IBD and were followed in our GI clinic. Cuban patients were identified and demographic information including year of immigration and age of immigration was obtained. We recorded information on age of IBD symptom onset and duration of disease. Age of IBD onset was compared among Cubans according to categorical periods of immigration using ANOVA and Student's t-test. Categorical periods of immigration reflected socio-political waves of migration into the US (before 1959, 1960s-1979s, 1980-1994, 1995 to present). Linear regression analysis with duration in the US as an independent variable was performed to analyze for onset of IBD from time of immigration. Results: A total of 234 patients were analyzed: 172 foreign-born Cubans and 62 US born first generation Cubans. A total of 138 foreign-born Cubans developed IBD symptoms after US immigration. Of these, age of IBD symptom onset was younger in Cubans immigrating after 1980 than before 1979, despite adjusting for age of immigration (45 yrs vs 29.75 yrs, respectively; p < 0.00001). US born Cubans had a similar younger age of onset as later periods of immigration compared to patients who immigrated prior to 1980 (19.50 yrs US born Cubans vs 31 foreign-born Cubans immigrating after 1980 vs 45 yrs foreign-born Cubans immigrating prior to 1975, p < 0.001). There was no difference in age of IBD onset by period of immigration in patients who developed IBD symptoms in Cuba. Conclusion: There is a temporal relationship between IBD development and immigration period in immigrant Hispanics coming to the US. IBD occurs within a shorter period of time from immigration in later waves of Cuban immigrants. This finding may be explained by changing environmental exposures present within the US. The study of IBD in migrant Hispanic populations may further our understanding of evolving environmental triggers responsible for the rise in IBD in developing countries.Figure 1

Associations between neighborhood socioeconomic environment and physical activity in Cuban immigrants

The chapter describes the unique benefits the Eisenhower through Nixon administrations extended to Cubans after their arrival, as refugees, even though they did not meet near-universally accepted criterion for refugee status. The chapter then addresses the impact the entitlements had on Cubans’ adaptation to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Cuban American economic mobility relative to that of native-born people into whose midst they moved, and tensions the privileging of Cubans unleashed between Cuban newcomers and native-born people. Settling mainly in Miami, Cuban immigrants provoked a major nativist response, race riots, and White flight. While the entitlements were good for the Cuban immigrants, they generated inequities and resentments, and unintended consequences.

The observations here presented, on the manifestations and clinical management of emotional disorders among Cuban immigrants in the United States, are based on more than twenty years of psychiatric practice among Cubans, half of it in Cuba. Emphasis will be on social and cultural factors that seem to influence the pathological picture and on case studies that are characteristic of the clinical syndromes seen among immigrants from the Caribbean.

This study uses data from the 1980 and 1990 Census and the 1994–2000 Current Population Survey to examine the determinants of earnings among male Cuban immigrants in the U.S. by race. Nonwhite Cuban immigrants earn about 15 percent less than whites, on average. Much of the racial wage gap is due to differences in educational attainment, age at migration, and years in the U.S., but the gap remains at almost 4 percent after controlling for such factors. Nonwhite Cuban immigrants also have lower returns to education than whites. A comparison to white, non-Hispanic U.S. natives indicates that nonwhite Cubans not only earn less initially than white Cubans on arrival in the U.S., but also do not significantly close the racial earnings gap over time.

The role of public policy in older immigrants’ use of and access to services has mainly been regarded with respect to its legal framework. However, the way public policies are framed and societies’ perceptions of immigrant groups can additionally influence immigrants’ experiences, with long-lasting effects on needs and services use later in life. Still, the importance of these mechanisms has rarely been analyzed. This study uses the Mariel boatlift in 1980 as a case study to assess the relationship between circumstances that surround an immigrants’ cohort and their care arrangement later in life. Cuban immigrants from the Mariel boatlift were perceived in a different way by the federal government and the general population than Cuban immigrants who arrived previously. Based on data from the American Community Survey (2008-2021), care arrangements of older Cubans who arrived in 1980, who are limited in daily activities, and who reside in the Miami area are compared to care arrangements of Cubans that immigrated before. Regression models are estimated and individual characteristics are accounted for. Compared to Cubans who arrived before 1980, Cubans of the Mariel boatlift are more likely to live in the community than in an institutional setting. However, among those living in the community, Cubans of the Mariel boatlift reveal a higher risk of living alone. The results suggest that Cubans of the Mariel boatlift are at higher risk for unmet needs. It is discussed how circumstances that surround immigrants’ cohort of arrival shape immigrants’ services needs and use.

Latinx immigrants in the U.S. are often analyzed through single case study methodology where each selected Latinx immigrant group in the U.S. analyzed through separate chapters of a book or a sub-section of an article. This study is prepared to compare the push factors, migration journeys and post-migration patterns of Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants in Florida by adopting Charles Tilly's Individualizing Comparison methodology. Since both of the Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants have been fleeing from left-wing home governments and choosing the same point of destination (Florida), there is a common misunderstanding that both of these immigrant groups have the same post-migration patterns. For this reason, levels of English proficiency, income, education and political party tendencies are compared throughout this study to show the differences and peculiarities of both immigrant groups in a comparative perspective. According to the findings of this study, the common assumptions about the two immigrants groups are wrong.

Information on Cuban immigrants from the recent ‘Measuring Cuban Opinion Project’ survey is used to determine the extent to which race matters. We use multivariate binomial logistic regression models to determine if race can be predicted by key demographic and economic characteristics of the respondents, their use of mass media outlets in Cuba, their evaluation of and integration to the Cuban state and their participation in the dissidence in the island. The conclusion is reached that race cannot be predicted because these immigrants are, in general terms, very similar. However, some racial differences in mode of immigration and likelihood of immigration were found.

This paper explores the public health system's differential construction of Mexican and Cuban immigrants' "deservingness" of citizenship benefits and its preparation of them for different roles in U.S. society. Civic institutions such as the public health care system are charged with inculcating normative behavior in immigrants and instilling in them different conceptions about their rights and responsibilities. Faced with limited resources under the implementation of Medicaid managed care, hospital administrators created new categories of "deserving" and "undeserving" immigrants based on neoliberal standards of individual responsibility and self-discipline. As a result, hospital policies construct different types of "cultural citizenship" for Cuban and Mexican immigrants, preparing the former to be active citizens and discouraging the latter from pressing demands on American civil institutions. I show that this negative construction of Mexican immigrants' moral worth leads to unmet health needs and poor health outcomes.

"Using data from the 1990 [U.S.] Panel Study of Income Dynamics Latino Sample, this study examines three competing hypotheses for understanding extended family living among Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants. The findings indicate no significant relationship between living with extended kin and cultural indicators--such as English fluency--or economic factors--such as employment and income. Rather, the data support a life course explanation. Extended family living arrangements among Latino immigrants represent a resource generating strategy for caring for young children and older adults."

This paper uses the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study to examine the effects of race, class and gender on the intermarriage of Cuban and Afro-Caribbean second-generation immigrants in the United States. Results indicate that gender and racial identity are significantly related to intermarriage for this group of immigrants. Interestingly, the immigrants’ socioeconomic status and family’s social class have a very minimal impact on intermarriage. Using Cuban white, Cuban Hispanic and Caribbean black as racial categories, the study shows that Caribbean black men are the least likely group to intermarry, and Cuban white men are the most likely to intermarry. Cuban Hispanic men are less likely to intermarry compared to their Cuban white counterparts. Lastly, Cuban white women are the most likely to intermarrycompared to Cuban white males for this sample population. A structural explanation for these patterns posits that differences in the relative size of each racial group in marriage markets affect their chances for intermarriage. From an assimilation perspective, the literature also suggests that differences in social distance with whites influence the propensity for co-ethnic intermarriage.

While acculturation and its implications for mental health have received extensive attention in studies with older immigrant populations, change over time in acculturation less so. This paper examines change over a two-year period in levels of linguistic acculturation among Cuban (n = 186) and non-Cuban Hispanic (n = 116) immigrants living in Florida. Data came from the waves of the Survey of Older Floridian (SOF), conducted using a statewide sampling frame based on population densities, with a computer-assisted telephone interview strategy. Calls were initiated through random digit dialing, and a follow-up interview was added approximately two years later. Measures included six acculturation items, one dealing with the participant’s language preference for the interview itself and five items dealing with language ability and usage. Results indicated that non-Cuban Hispanics were significantly more acculturated than Cuban Hispanics, and that at least 75% of Wave 2 acculturation was accounted for by Wave 1 status. After controlling for initial levels of acculturation, those who at first interview reported more economic problems and those reporting fewer depressive symptoms were more acculturated at follow-up. It was concluded that while linguistic acculturation is relatively stable, interventions to increase acculturation have implications for mental health service utilization.

In the investigation reported here, I have tested the ethnic enclave hypothesis, focusing on self-employed Cuban and Mexican immigrants. Specifically, I have compared the economic returns for self-employed Cuban immigrants in Florida with those of Mexican immigrants in California and Texas. The analysis shows that self-employed Mexican immigrants who remain within Mexican enclaves earn substantially lower earnings than those in non-enclave environments. In contrast, the earnings of Cuban immigrants self-employed within Cuban enclaves are comparable to those earned by Cubans employed within the general labor market. Overall, my findings are contrary to the ethnic enclave hypothesis, which suggests that there are economic advantages associated with owning firms in ethnic enclaves.