Cuba Transition Project: The Role of the Cuban-American Community in the Cuban Transition

摘要

The Cuban-American community is well-placed to be a positive factor in both Cuba's transition and in its economic development in the long run. The community is large, relatively well-off in economic and educational terms, and politically influential--characteristics that endow it with the capacity to make substantial economic contributions and political transformations in Cuba. Under a different political regime in Cuba, the Cuban-American community could contribute to the transition not only through continuation and even expansion of economic interventions, including private transfers known as remittances, but also through its ability to influence U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba as well as policy development in Cuba. Over more than four decades, some 1.5 million people have emigrated from Cuba and settled in neighboring countries, mostly the United States.