The Cuban exodus has reached unprecedented proportions in the last three years, with more than 850,000 citizens leaving the communist island in search of better living conditions in the United States, the Spanish newspaper reported The Country.
According to the publication, citing data from US customs, between October 2021 and September 2023, 533,000 Cubans arrived in the United States. Between October 2023 and August 2024, this number was increased by another 208,000 asylum seekers. In addition, another 110,000 Cubans have received benefits from the US government’s humanitarian entry program since 2023, meaning that in total, around 851,000 Cubans have left for the United States.
These numbers, however, do not consider those who migrated to the US with other types of visas, which suggests that the true migration balance may be even higher.
According to the The Country, This flight of Cubans to the United States reduced the population of the communist island by approximately 18%, a phenomenon that appears far from being reversed.
Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos told the Spanish newspaper that this exodus of Cubans from their home country is being accompanied by a significant drop in the number of births and an increase in mortality. According to him, the population situation in Cuba at the moment “is critical,” with fewer and fewer young people and an average age that continues to rise. “The population decline has continued,” Albizu-Campos told the newspaper. The Countrychallenging the official statistics of the Cuban regime, which insists on a population of over 11 million. Albizu-Campos, however, claims that the actual population present on the island at this time is only 8.62 million.
Young Elsa, 30, is one of the many Cubans who decided to leave: “It was very difficult to solve and satisfy basic needs, [em Cuba] there was nothing, the issue of blackouts was unbearable and the issue of food. The price of the dollar kept rising”, she reported, according to information from the Argentine portal Infobae.
Elsa has been living in Miami since November 2023, when she entered the United States after a risky 3,000-kilometer journey. Her journey began in Managua, Nicaragua, where she arrived without needing a visa, a facilitator that has been a major driver of the Cuban exodus since the Nicaraguan regime eliminated that requirement in 2021.
This exodus of Cubans from their homeland is, according to the The Countryconsidered the largest since the Cuban Revolution of 1959. In addition to the United States, countries such as Mexico, Uruguay and Chile have been recurring destinations for Cubans. In Mexico, for example, more than 36,000 Cubans requested asylum between 2022 and 2023. In Uruguay, around 22,000 Cubans have arrived in recent years, while hundreds have landed in Chile
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