MIGRATION-CUBA: The Ice Continues to Thaw

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 2 1995 (IPS) - The second conference on “the Nation and Emigration”, part of a process of normalisation of relations between the Cuban government and nationals living abroad, will bring more than 300 emigrants residing in some 35 countries to Havana this weekend.

Jose Cabanas, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s Office of Affairs of Cuban Residents Abroad, said 362 people, more than 60 percent of whom live in the United States, have confirmed their attendance at the conference, to run Friday through Monday.

Cabanas said supposed attempts to keep Cuban-Americans from participating in the conference have more to do with the Cuban- American right, based in Miami – home to the largest Cuban community abroad – than with Washington. He added that no official message has come from the U.S. government.

The conference, organised by the government of Fidel Castro, is part of a thawing of relations that began with talks in 1978.

The end result of the 1978 dialogue was the adoption by the government of measures designed to favour family contacts, through the authorisation of permanent departures and temporary visits.

According to Cuban officials, the first conference on “the Nation and Emigration” held in April 1994 focused on emigrants’ interests in terms of their relations with Cuba, while participants made no proposals for political changes in the Caribbean island nation.

Cuba has nearly 11 million inhabitants, while an estimated two million Cuban nationals live abroad, over half of them in the United States.

Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina said the only requisite set for participation in this weekend’s conference was that those attending take a stance against the U.S. embargo and respect Cuban sovereignty.

“There will be no room for hysterical people,” said Robaina. But he added that while “anti-Cuba hysteria” is becoming more aggressive, the number of emigrants taking a respectful and sensible stance of willingness to engage in dialogue is growing.

National legislation allows all Cubans who left the country legally – even if they did not have an emigration visa at the time – to visit Cuba, as soon as their residency status in their new home country is established.

After consulting with those invited to participate, the government decided to organise the conference around panels that will debate emigration policy, citizenship, culture and national identity, economic affairs and associations of dissidents abroad.

Cabanas said the round table on economic affairs will seek ways to establish economic ties between the emigrants and Cuba, since a law that allows Cubans residing abroad to invest in the island was passed in September.

Since April 1994 – when according to Cabanas the “ice was broken” for the first time in 10 years between “those inside” and “those outside” of Cuba – emigrants have visited the island to participate in meetings on Afro-Cuban roots and emigration, participative democracy, culture and national identity.

One of the key issues on the agenda of this weekend’s conference will be the Cuban-U.S. immigration accords that put an end to illegal emigration to the United States, and set the basis for the issuing of at least 20,000 visas a year by the Clinton administration.

The conference coincides with the debate by a joint House- Senate Committee in the U.S. Congress of the Helms-Burton bill, designed to internationalise and stiffen the embargo adopted against Cuba in 1962.

There is concern about what the new law will mean for Cuban emigrants’ relationships with their families back home.

“We are talking about a policy that has to do with the sensitivity of many people at a family level,” said Cabanas, who called the conference “just another part” of a much broader process.

MIGRATION-CUBA: The Ice Continues to Thaw

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 2 1995 (IPS) - The second conference on “the Nation and Emigration”, part of a process of normalisation of relations between the Cuban government and nationals living abroad, will bring more than 300 emigrants residing in some 35 countries to Havana this weekend.
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