The Return of Race-based Inequalities in Contemporary Cuba: Analysing the Impact of Past Migration and Current Reforms

At the heart of the research project lies a nationwide survey with more than 1,000 Cubans which provides us with a unique data set on the relationship between migration/remittances, foreign citizenship/mobility, and the increasing racial inequalities during Cuba’s current economic reforms. The survey is complemented by in-depth, formal interviews which facilitates qualitative insights into the underlying social processes and dynamics and provides the study with a high degree of ethnographic ‘thickness’.

The survey provides impressive empirical evidence for the return of race-based inequalities, which to a significant extent echoes the socio-ethnic stratification of the Cuban society prior to the 1959 revolution. The data show how past migration patterns and the corresponding flows of family remittances are the key source of investment capital for the small-scale enterprises that have been legalized with the country’s economic reform process. In addition, pre-revolutionary property of houses and cars have become an important asset in the emerging market sectors. The survey shows that as a result the Afro-Cuban population has by and large significantly less income than phenotypically “white” Cubans; other indicators such as business participation, travel or Internet access confirm this trend. Finally, also the acquisition of a second foreign citizenship (mostly Spanish) is an important privilege that is almost exclusively available to the Cuban population of European descent. In sum, the research project for the first time provides systematic empirical evidence for the profound socio-ethnic restructuring that the Cuban society is undergoing. This is profoundly challenging a socio-political order which in the past achieved an extraordinarily high degree of social equality.