Youth, migration and identity in Cuba since 1959

In Cuba, the issue of migration cannot be disaggregated from the relationship with the US and, specifically, the issues of migration from socialist Cuba to its larger neighbour. Such migration is an important element of the political relationship between the two countries, but is also a key factor in the definition of Cuban identity. This chapter will present two case studies of the intersection of migration and youth in Cuba after 1959 and will explore the relationship between these cases and the contemporary polemic on migration.

The relationship between island-based Cubans and the Cuban diaspora and very notion of national identity and the right to self-define as Cuban are woven into narratives of international relations as the intimate level of family relations come into contact (and conflict) with high politics. Young Cubans experience migration not only as migrants but also from the island where such migration has become part of the Cuban imagined identity. The repeated moral panics over young people who do not work or study over the Revolutionary period coupled with the heightened focus on young people as key agents in the revolutionary process creates a specific set of circumstances which allow for a definition of Cuban identity which is fluid and in flux, but which, given the new (though fragile) reality of a closer relationship with the USA, has sought and continues to seek to incorporate migration into a reflective understanding of the revolutionary process.