The Open Veins of Cuban Migration: Economic and Migration Policy en Nuestra América

Abstract

The Americas can be observed as an active conflict zone, both by armed violence and economic violence. Through a framework of conflict analysis between the United States and Cuba, this research aims to answer the following questions: What are the historical, geopolitical and economic factors that shape the ongoing conflict as well as the migration and refugee policies between Cuba and the United States? What are the effects of these policies in the lives of Cuban migrants? These questions allow for an exploration of the stark contradictions between economic and migration policies in the region between these key sending, transit, and receiving states. On the one hand, Cuba has experienced the longest and most severe economic sanctions by the U.S. embargo, currently lasting 56 years and continuously causing indirect violence in the form of restricted access to medications and resources. On the other hand, Cubans have been the only nationality in the world that the United States permits automatic refugee status upon arriving to the United States. The increase in Cuban migration from 2014-2017 is politically connected to, and even a result of relations “normalizing” between the United States and Cuba. I will explore how the United States migration policies function to turn refugees into migrants in what can be called a “manageable labor cycle.”