Cuba Emigration and Immigration

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Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

• 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
• Registros del Consulado de España en La Habana, Cuba, Exenciones de quinta Records of the Consulate of Spain in Havana, Cuba, Spain, Consular Records of Emigrants
• Los catalanes en América: Cuba The Catalans in Cuba, e-book, indexed.

Background

Immigration

• The native white population are nearly all descendants of the Spaniards and most non-white Cubans also have Spanish ancestry.
• Other prominent immigrant groups included French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Greek, British, and Irish, as well as small number of descendants of U.S. citizens who arrived in Cuba in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Spanish Immigration to Cuba

• In 1514, the Spanish founded a setttlement in what was to become Havana.
• Between the 18th and early 20th century, large waves of Canarian, Catalan, Andalusian, Galician, and other Spanish people immigrated to Cuba.
• Between 1899 and 1930 alone, close to a million Spaniards entered the country, though many would eventually return to Spain.
• For four years, between 1916 and 1920, Cuba was the first major destination of Spanish migrants to Latin America (about 60%), and the second major destination, after Argentina, between 1900 to 1930.
• According to current statistics, there are over 9,566 Canarians, 23,185 Andalusians and 11,114 Galicians living in Cuba.

Emigration

• The Cuban diaspora is the exodus of over one million displaced Cubans (the largest community is in Miami and its metropolitan area in the United States) following the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Other preferred countries include Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Ireland, Australia, and Nicaragua.
• The Cuban exodus is the mass emigration of Cubans from the island of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Throughout the exodus millions of Cubans from diverse social positions within Cuban society became disillusioned with life in Cuba and decided to emigrate in various emigration waves.
• The first wave of emigration occurred directly after the revolution, followed by the Freedom Flights from 1965 to 1973. This was followed by the 1980 Mariel boatlift and after 1994 the flight of balseros emigrating by raft.
• During the Cuban exile many refugees were granted special legal status by the US government, but these privileges began to be slowly removed in the 2010s.
• The emigrants in the exodus known as "Cuban exiles" have come from various backgrounds in Cuban society, often reflected in the wave of emigration they participated in.
• The majority of the 1,172,899 current Cuban exiles living in the United States live in Florida (917,033 in 2014), mainly in Miami-Dade County, where more than a third of the population is Cuban.
• Other exiles have relocated to form substantial Cuban communities in New York City (16,416); Louisville, Kentucky (6,662); Houston, Texas (6,233); Los Angeles (6,056); Union City, New Jersey (4,970) and others.