Cuban migration and remittances

   On March 5, the Inter-American Dialogue in DC released an interesting and important report on Cuban migration and remittances. The statistics presented in the report are for the most part unique because of the highly politicized nature of the subject. There is not a generally accepted source for remittance data in Cuba, for example; the equivalent data for most other countries of the world is regularly compiled by the central government of each and freely divulged to international institutions, but the lid is tighter in Cuba. The numbers in this report come from Florida International University surveys analyzed by Manuel Orozco, the report’s author, who is a well-known and highly respected scholar of migration and remittance research and analysis.

The report is “The Cuban Condition: Migration, Remittances and Diaspora,” and it points to the shifts and continuities in Cuba that have arisen with respect migration. Some of the most illuminating points include:

• The total flow of remittances to the island is estimated to be between $830 and $985 million, according to the results of the surveys; the Cuban government expects $1.4 billion in remittances in 2009.
• Remittance figures in 2008 remained at about the same level as in 2004, but the money is increasingly sent through clandestine means, due to more stringent US and Cuban regulations.
• The cost of remitting to Cuba is much higher than the average for Latin American countries; the average cost to send money from the United States to Cuba is 15% of the total value sent, and the average cost to send to other Latin American countries is 5%.
• Cuban migrants are now increasingly leaving the island for countries other than the United States. Migration to the United States continues in large numbers, of course, but as Cuba’s ties to Europe have increased, Cuban migration to those countries has increased, too. In fact, between 2005 and 2009, remittances from the United States to Cuba dropped from 81% of the total to 53%, and those from Spain, which in 2005 composed only 12%, now account for 23% of all Cuban remittances.
• The current US and global  economic crisis has affected 70% of Cuban senders of remittances, and a full 20% had to stop sending money back to the island as a result.

Ultimately, the survey analysis is prescriptive: Orozco recommends a reconsideration of US legislation and Cuban dollar exchange policies that restrict remittances to Cuba, concluding that both have been detrimental to competition, costs and families.

More on Cuban dual currencies tomorrow.