Cuban Immigration
Push/Pull, Journey/Treatment, Success/Influence on America
Push/Pull Factors
There are many different reasons why the Cubans decided to emigrate to the US, and many different push and pull factors that affect their decision to migrate, the biggest ones being the ruling of Fidel Castro and his over ruling of the communist government, and the biggest pull factor to america being the freedoms Americans have and the democratic government. Some evidence I have to support that is “In 1959, Fidel Castro and his Communist regime took over Cuba.” this is explaining the Fidel Castro took over and was overruling the communist government making the country a dictatorship ruling the county with an iron fist giving no freedoms to citizens. For these reasons many Cubans moved to the southern part of the united states mostly in Florida to start their new lives. 63% of people in Miami Florida today are Cuban.
Because of all of these reasons that pushes the Cubans away it was not all just push factors, there were many pull factors to move to america. Some of these reasons were the Americans rights and freedoms they have, such as freedom of speech, religion, press, protest and so on. All of these rights were a huge pull factor for the Cubans because in their homeland they did not have anything close to these rights in Cuba, and if they did try to have these rights and exercise them they would be punished or even killed. Over the course of Fidel's ruling he killed over 30,000 Cubans for many different reasons that were not worthy of this penalty.
The Journey and the treatment of the Cubans
Although that the journey of the Cubans was very hard and long and not easy to any means, they did and were accepted and assimilated very well to the new life style they were moving to. On the journey to the Americas the Cubans did struggle and did have a tough time traveling with many casualties and lots of sicknesses and hard times they had to face on there journey to the US. But while travel the journey was not as easy as you would think it would be because of the shorter distance there were many struggles that they faced as a Cuban immigrant explains his journey. In order to get to the dock where they would start there journey they had “30 hours hiking..., without sleep, and had reached varying levels of emotional distress; the stakes were high.” and when they were done with their journey to the docks they were not even started on there way to america. “In Yasiel Puig's journey to escape he ran into many different problems that stopped him in his tracks, “Dogs barked, and the beams of flashlights played in the air and on the water. When they saw the lights range over the water, they dived. Eventually, the police gave up, but the Cuban coast guard did not.” So not only did they have the problem of making the long journey to america they had many different other factors in how they got there. Although Hard and grueling the Cubans did not regret their decisions to migrate to the US, they did make lots of success in the US and did positively affect the United states.
Because of all of these good things they have been doing for the United States there treatment from the Americans has been very good, and the Americans were very accepting to the Cubans. Although that many different Hispanic stereotypes have been confused with Cuban culture because of there very similar looking skin color and language.
The Cubans influence and Success in America
With over 25% of businesses in Miami being owned by Cuban nationality, and according to the 2007 census Site explained that “251,000 Cuban American-owned businesses generated $51 billion to our economy.” This is stating that the Cubans are positively affecting the economy of the US. This also explains that the Cuban Americans own over 1 out of every 4 businesses in Miami, that’s a huge number and a huge impact on the community of Miami also a huge boost of economic development for the US as a whole. Also with over “78 percent of Cuban Americans had registered to vote in 1989 and 1990” http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/35.pdf They are not only hard work people generating money and profit for the US they also exercise there rights by voting for leaders in our country as all citizen should. So with all of the positive contributions that the Cubans have on the US, Cubans have really truly been a positive influence on the United States.
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