The immigrant divide : how Cuban Americans changed the US and their homeland

311 Pages·2009·1.528 MB·English

by  Susan Eckstein

The Immigrant Divide
Are all immigrants from the same country of origin best understood as one political
and social group? Or are generational differences more profound than we might
imagine? Between Castro’s rise to power in 1959 and the early twenty-first century
more than a million Cubans immigrated to the United States. While it is widely
known that Cuban émigrés have exerted a strong hold on Washington policy
toward their homeland, Eckstein uncovers a fascinating paradox: the recent
arrivals, although politically weak and poor, have done more to transform their
homeland than the influential and prosperous early exiles who have tried for half a
century to bring the Castro regime to heel. The impact of the so-called New
Cubans is an unintended consequence of the personal ties they maintain with
family in Cuba, ties the first arrivals oppose.
This historically grounded, nuanced book offers a rare in-depth analysis of
Cuban immigrants’ social, cultural, economic, and political adaptation, their trans-
formation of Miami into the “northernmost Latin American city,” and their cross-
border engagement and homeland impact. Eckstein accordingly provides new
insight into the lives of Cuban immigrants, into Cuba in the post-Soviet era, and
into how Washington’s failed Cuba policy might be improved. She also posits a
new theory to deepen the understanding not merely of Cuban but of other immi-
grant group adaptation.
Susan Eva Eckstein is Professor of Sociology and International Relations at
Boston University. Au thor of Back from the Future: Cuba under Castro, as well as
numerous other books on Latin America, she is also former president of the Latin
American Studies Association and the New England Council on Latin America.

The Immigrant Divide
How Cuban Americans Changed the US
and their Homeland
Susan Eva Eckstein
First published 2009
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Eckstein, Susan, 1942–
The immigrant divide : how Cuban Americans changed the US and their
homeland / Susan Eva Eckstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Cuban Americans—History. 2. Cuban Americans—Social
conditions. 3. Cuban A mericans—Politics and government. 4. Cuba—
History—Revolution, 1959. 5. Cuba—Emigration and immigration.
6. Cuba—Foreign relations—United States. 7. United States—Politics
and government. 8. United States—Emigration and immigration.
9. United States—Foreign relations—Cuba. I. Title.
E184.C97E27 2009
973′.04687291—dc22
2009016639
ISBN 0-203-88100-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–99922–7 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–99923–5 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–88100–1 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–99922–9 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–99923–6 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–88100–2 (ebk)
In memory of Maggie

Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Immigrants and the Weight of Their Past 10
2 Immigrant Imprint in America 40
3 Immigrant Politics: For Whom and for What? 88
4 The Personal is Political: Bonding
Across Borders 127
5 Cuba Through the Looking Glass 153
6 Transforming Transnational Ties into
Economic Worth 178

7 Dollarization and its Discontents:
Homeland Impact of Diaspora Generosity 207
8 Reenvisioning Immigration 229
Appendix: Field Research 239
Notes 245
Bibliography 269
Index 289

List of Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Immigrants officially admitted to the US by
country of origin, 1951–2004 11
4.1 Cuban-American travel to Cuba, 1990–2004 133
Tables
1.1 Cuban occupational structure and last job held in
Cuba by émigrés to the US 16
1.2 Race, gender, and age-of-immigration among
Cuban Americans in Miami and nationwide in census years
1970–2000 19
1.3 Cuban Americans in 2000: Percentage US and
foreign-born (by year of entry) 33
2.1 Residence of Cuban Americans in census years
1970–2000 46
2.2 Racial and ethnic composition of Miami in census
years 1970–2000 46
2.3 Co-ethnic sociability in Miami among Cuban

Americans in 2004 48
2.4 Cuban American linguistic acculturation in Miami
in 2004 and 2007 52
2.5 Job and income attainment among Cuban
Americans in Miami in census years 1970–2000 71
2.6 Job attainment by age among Cuban Americans in
Miami in census years 1970–2000 75
2.7 Income by age among Cuban Americans in and
outside Miami in census years 1970–2000 76
2.8 Job attainment by age-of-immigration among
Cuban Americans in census years 1970–2000 77
2.9 Income by age-of-immigration in and outside
Miami in census years 1970–2000 78