Link to article: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/americas/cuba-mass-migration-intl-latam/index.html
Summary: Cuba is experiencing the worst food and medicine shortages in the island’s history and because of this lots of the citizens of Cuba are fleeing to America. In March more than 32,000 Cubans arrived at the US-Mexico border which is twice the amount the previous month. Protests in Cuba started in July of 2021 because of the widespread power outages, food shortages, and lack of civil liberties. The Cuban Government claims that the protests were orchestrated by Washington to topple the communist government. This article tells a story of a woman and her husband and child and how they needed to use Mexican smugglers in order to leave their home country of Cuba and escape to America. While she was being smuggled to America she says that people from other countries were using the same methods as her. People from countries such as Colombia, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti. The current exodus from Cuba is on track to be the largest in history overtaking the previous record of 125,000. The main reason that such large numbers of people are leaving is because the lack of access to basic needs.
Analysis: The Cuban Government is unable to provide for it’s citizens and because of this many are unhappy and protesting against the government or leaving the country all together. This mass exodus from Cuba is affecting not only Cuba greatly but also the countries that they are fleeing into. Cuba because of the amount of people leaving will experience a worker shortage which would only add to the already present food and medicine shortage they are experiencing. This could possibly be to such a degree that the country of Cuba stops functioning and could fall apart from the inside. There is also the issue of where these immigrants are fleeing to. A majority of them are fleeing to America by illegal means which means even if they reach America they aren’t safe as they run the risk of being deported if it’s discovered that they are here illegally. There is also the possibility that with a large amount of people immigrating into America that America will experience a job shortage as there aren’t enough jobs for everyone.
How this relates to class: This shows us how a failing government can spread the negative affects to countries that are in proximity to it. Because of Cuba’s failures to provide for it’s citizens countries such as America have to be able to house those that are in need and be able to provide for them. In a time that the world is just coming out of global pandemic this amount of immigrants is bad for any country that is receiving them as they are just now getting their citizens back to something like normal and pre-pandemic.