• AN OLD PHENOMENON

In Cuba international migration is not a recent phenomenon. Before the discovery indigenous populations from other territories in the Antilles arrived in Cuba and subdued our native people who were among the most backward and peaceable in the region. The colonization and conquest that began in the 16th century brought to Cuba, as to other parts of America, a growing number of Spanish migrants, resulting after only four decades in the elimination of the native population. The disappearance of this labour force led to the introduction of African slaves. Even though the presence of four African slaves was first recorded in 1513, the forced migration of African slaves reached a zenith during the 19th century. For example, in 1841, 436,495 slaves were registered in Cuba. They represented 43% of the country's total 1,007,624 inhabitants. It is estimated that 816,000 slaves were brought to Cuba between 1521 and 1873.

Moreover, large numbers of Chinese migrants entered the country during the second half of the 19th century. It is estimated that between 1848 and 1874 approximately 124,000 Chinese arrived in Cuba, under very similar conditions as those of the African slaves.¹

Between 1849 and 1861 Indians from the Yucatán also entered Cuba under conditions similar to those of the Chinese immigrants. Some authors estimate that a total of 2,000 people from the Yucatán settled in the island.

Data from population censuses provide an approximate estimate of immigration flows during the 19th century.

In reality, since Cuba was a Spanish "province" there was not much interest in recording migration movements, hence it is not an easy task to calculate the total number of Spanish people who entered the island. Also, since it was one of the last colonies to achieve independence, Cuba received many soldiers and officials who abandoned the other colonies as they gained independence or came under the control of other European nations. ²

During the second half of the 19th century the precarious economic and social situation fueled the contradictions between opposing political forces in Cuba, accelerating the demise of the colonial model. The Demajagua cry launched Cuba's independence wars: the Ten Years War (1868-1878), the War for Independence (1895-1898) and the Hispanic-Cuban War (1898). The latter included the peculiar developments of the intervention of the United States of America, the defeat of Spain, the appointment of a U.S. governor and the establishment of the so-called "República Mediatizada" (1898-1902).

In reality, U.S. interventions in Cuba began much earlier than its military participation in the conflict. Already during the seventies decade of the 19th century, the United States had began investing in railroads and sugar mills, transferring to the island U.S. personnel to oversee such investments.

The new government, in an effort to restore the island's economy, stimulated immigration through a number of measures and laws aimed at encouraging the importation of labor for agriculture. During the first three decades of the 19th century, during which Cuba enjoyed a period of economic bonanza, large numbers of immigrants entered the country, mostly in search of jobs. However, the authorities in charge at the times attempted to select migration flows by country of origin. On May 15, 1902, a military order closed Cuba's borders to migrants from Haiti, Jamaica and China, while on June 12, 1906, a law allocated funds to attract white families to stimulate agriculture.

A few years later the regulations restricting access to people from the Antilles were repealed and in 1913 a U.S. firm received permission to import day labourers from that region. Thus, new flows of migrants from Jamaica, Haiti and, to a lesser extent, Puerto Rico joined the growing number of Spanish immigrants. Migrants from the U.S. were mostly administrators, officials and experts assigned to that country's enterprises in the island.

The largest number of immigrants entered the country during the years of greater economic boom, such as the 1020s. This included a sizable number of immigrants from China who, to a large extent, were coming from the U.S.

The total number of immigrants reached over one million people (See Table 2).

Tabla Nº 2. Cuba:  Immigrants according to period of entry (1902-1934) and
     distribution according to country of origin

                  Source:     Republic of Cuba. Secretaría de Hacienda: "Inmigración y movilidad de pasajeros"
                                   (Reports for the years 1902 to 1934).   

Regarding the social and demographic characteristics of the immigrants who entered Cuba during those three decades, over 80% were men. Over 90% were between 15 and 45 years of age and more than 70% were single.

Beginning in 1930 immigrations began to lose importance to the point that they were no longer registered in the bulletins on immigration and the movement of passengers published during the first years of the 20th century.

Many of the Spanish immigrants who arrived in Cuba during its economic boom returned to their homeland. The laws adopted in 1933 contributed to this emigration, as well as to the emigration of people from the Antilles. During the years between the 1931 and 1943 censuses the migration balance was, for the first time, negative due to the forced repatriation of immigrants from the Antilles began by the government of Gerardo Machado and the constant emigration of Cubans, among other factors.

To these migration movements we must add the sizable exodus of Cubans to other American countries, preferably the U.S. Most of the Cubans who migrated to the U.S. at the time were young black and mulatto workers and labourers who settled in New York and New Jersey in search of jobs and did not experience any upward mobility, as almost all immigrants from the Caribbean at the time.

Thus, the world crisis (1929-1933) and the consequent collapse of sugar production at the beginning of the 1930s marked the end of Cuba as a destination for immigrants.

The migration of Cubans to the U.S. really began at a significant scale over one and a half centuries ago. The first flows of Cuban migrants to the U.S. began during the second half of the 19th century. In 1870, 12,000 Cubans had settled in the U.S., compared to the total number of Cubans: 1,445,000 ³ (this represents a rate of 8 per thousand). In 1890, when Cuba's population was 1,600,000 million people, this number reached 20,000 (a rate of 12 per thousand) and in 1910 it doubled to 40,000. Given a total population of 2,236,000 people this latest figure represents a rate of 18 immigrants per each thousand inhabitant.

According to some sources, around 35,145 Cubans emigrated between 1930 and 1950, mostly to the U.S. Between 1950 and 1958 the number of Cubans living in the U.S. reached 50,950.

This evidence supports the thesis put forth by some experts that even without the Cuban Revolution the migration of Cubans to the U.S and other parts of the world would have continued and very possibly with greater intensity.

¹ The Chinese "culies" arrived in Cuba under an eight years work contract with their 'owner'. Upon completion of that term, they were allowed to return to their country, if they could afford it. In fact, the voyage and work conditions were very similar to those experienced by the black slaves.

² An example of this is provided by the 1899 Census, which indicates that 8,000 Spanish people arrived from Jamaica in 1656, and other large groups from Florida, Louisiana and Santo Domingo (this included other nationalities, mostly French).

³Population estimates calculated by the author based on growth rates between census periods (1861-1877), (1887-1899) and (1907-1919).

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