CUBA-POPULATION: Havana Threatened with Overcrowding

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 13 1997 (IPS) - The Cuban economic crisis that erupted in 1990 spawned a new tribe of migrant workers, who wander from village to town and city seeking a job – and more money. Generally, the journey ends in Havana and these internal migrants find that the Cuban capital does not hold the solution to their problems.

The situation today is similar the immigrant waves of 30 years ago when Havana became a magnet for rural Cubans who abandoned their birthplace in search of a better life.

Researchers, however, say that their studies show that few of the internal migrants manage to improve their livlihood in the capital as Havana is already crowded with two million inhabitants seeking a better life

Blanca Morejon, a specialist from the Center for Demographic Studies at the University of Havana, pointed out in a recent seminar that migration to the Cuban capital in the 1990’s has consistently created “downward social mobility.”

Speaking to the Cuban Worker’s Organization – the only labor union in the country – Morejon declared a large percentage of Cubans who emigrate to Havana become even poorer, while their employment prospects also worsen.

Morejon, who directed last year’s National Poll on Internal Migration, says that the most significant factor in the overall migratory picture is that many people don’t come to Havana so much looking for work as abandoning their old jobs where they used to live.

According to official data, during the 1950’s the total number of migrants entering Havana was between 20,000 – 25,000 people each year. In 1959, with Fidel Castro’s ascent to power, this number rose to 43,000.

Many experts commend Cuba for its effort to stabilize migration to Havana from 1965 to 1990 at 10,000 people per year.

Declining migration to Havana has been attributed to Cuba’s centralized government which, for more than 20 years, has been attempting to achieve balanced development of all Cuba’s regions and eliminating marked differences between city and country life.

While Havana grew at an annual average of 0.7 percent between 1970 and 1980, Bogota’s rate was 3 percent, Caracas’ rate 2 percent, Mexico City’s 4.2 percent, Lima’s 3.7 percent, Santiago de Chile’s 2.6 percent, and Sao Paulo’s 4.4 percent.

In 1990, with the onset of the current economic crisis, a tremendous rise in migration to Havana took place with more than 43,000 immigrants relocating to the capital that year, replicating the situation of the early 60’s. The migratory total was 13,000 in 1990, 16,000 in 1994, 22,000 in 1995, and 27,000 in 1996.

Morejon pointed out that “between 1989 and 1992, for each new job in Havana, 29.9 idle people took up residence in the capital, among them a large number of adults (in their working prime) who were not actively seeking work.”

To maintain this rate, Havana has been obliged to provide social services to 27,000 unemployed people for each 900 people who entered the labor force as workers in newly created positions.

Morejon said that “internal migration is not the chief cause of Havana’s problems, although it does aggravate them to a considerable extent.”

Morejon added “if Havana cannot provide housing for those who already live here, then there will surely be less for new arrivals. The same situation pertains to everything else: food. water, electricity, gas, and basic services. Heavy migration is exacerbating Havana’s difficulties.

According to Cuba’s Demographic Yearbook published last year by the National Statistics Office, by the end of 1995 Cuba had 10,979,510 inhabitants of whom 2,176,563 resided in Havana. In 1995, 53,206 migrants moved to Havana.

Also in 1995, Havana reported an average growth rate of 7.7 for every thousand inhabitants and a natural growth rate of 3.5 for every thousand inhabitants.

The economic crisis has affected living conditions in Havana where there is a serious concentration of problems concerning housing, hygiene, and basic services. These crises were occasioned by the 1993 34.3 per cent decline in gross national product in comparison with 1989’s GNP. Although the economy began to show signs of recovery in 1994, and grew 7.8 percent in 1996, governmental sources recognize that the improvement has still not had positive effects on living conditions for the general populace.

The migration poll conducted last year revealed that 846,000 people “wished to move from their current residence,” and that 185,000 of these stated that they “would choose Havana as their new residence.”

Morejon said the polll had shown thay, in the next few years, “it will be difficult to modify current migratory trends and the Cuban government should take measures to dissuade Cubans from moving to the capital.”