Cuban Migration into the U.S.

Cuban Migration into the U.S.

There have been several regions of United States that have gone through cultural changes throughout time. The indigenous people on the East coast went through a cultural change when the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. The people that lived in the North went through a cultural change when the French entered by the St. Lawrence River bringing their Roman Catholicism religion. The people that were living in what is now Alaska went through cultural change when the Russians entered the area with their new language and orthodox religion. More recently, the people of Miami have gone through cultural changes since the Cubans have entered Southern Florida. To understand the migration of Cubans to Southern Florida, one must be familiar with the history of Cuban migration, immigration policies, and their implications.

While the United States immigration policy has traditionally reflected economic and xenophobic concerns, the United States refugee policy has reflected foreign policy concerns. During the Cold War, U.S. refugee policy was used as a tool to embarrass communist regimes. In the process of shaming communist countries, refugees from these states were evidence that the U.S. was winning its tussle with communism. A 1953 National Security Council memorandum cited the 1953 Refugee Act as a way to "encourage defection of all USSR nations and 'key' personnel from the satellite countries' in order to 'inflict a psychological blow on

Communism’, and a material loss to the Soviet Union" (Zolberg, 123-124).

In 1959, the U.S. was afforded the opportunity to implement the 1953 memorandum when Fidel Castro implemented a communist government in Cuba. It is likely that the composers of the memoran...

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... Jeffery. "The Asylum Dilemma." State of the World's

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Randay-Caos and Rachel Reily. New York: 1997. p. 218.

Rieff, David. "From Exiles to Immigrants." Foreign Affairs.

July/August 1995: 76-89.

The Federation For American Immigration Reform. Home Page:

Recommendations of the US Commission on Immigration Reform, and Favoritism for Cubans. 20 Oct. 2000, http://www.fairus.org.

United States Department of State. Home Page: Cuba:

Migration: 16 Mar. 2000, http://www.stste.gov/www/regions/sha/cuba/migration. Html.

Zolberg, Aristide. "From Invitation to Interdiction: US

Foreign policy and Immigration since 1945”. Threatened Peoples, Threatened Borders: World Migration Policy. Eds. Michael Teitelbaum and Myron Weiner. New York: Columbia University, 1995. p.123-124.