Cubans in Costa Rica: A Collection of Life Stories

摘要

This ethnographic essay examines the experiences of Cuban immigrants living in Costa Rica. The study aims to examine the degree of adjustment, adaptation, integration and/or assimilation of Cubans living in the small city of San Isidro del General in southern Costa Rica. This group represents a minor body of immigrants for whom Costa Rica serves as a country of first asylum and potentially as their new, adoptive homeland. Some major theoretical considerations and analytic themes that emerge out of this work are the issues of immigrant identity through the displaced people’s perspective; issues of separation from one culture and introduction to a new one; and issues of integration, adaptation or assimilation to the host culture. Other analytic themes that emerge in this research relate to politics, occupational adjustments, inter-ethnic relations, family relations, socio-economic status, education, employment, the personal perceptions of the United States and also of the Costa Rican government’s care of the migrant population.