- Cubans were the nationality that most asked for refuge in Brazil in 2024
- In Uruguay, the number of Cuban children enrolled in public schools has increased sevenfold since 2018
14ymedio, Madrid, 27 December 2024 — Cuban migrants no longer look only to the north. The route to the United States has lost popularity this year, while Brazil and Uruguay have become the new magnets. In November, there was not a single national of the Island among the beneficiaries of the parole granted by Washington, and there is a decrease in detainees for illegally entering from Mexico, according to the most recent data from US Customs and Border Protection.
The executive order signed by the outgoing president, Joe Biden, to restrict access to asylum for those who enter the country illegally, which came into force in June, as well as the promise of the president-elect, Donald Trump, to eliminate parole and carry out mass deportations, tend to discourage Cubans who intend to emigrate. The exodus, however, does not stop, as confirmed by the official statistics themselves.
Where do the Cubans who don’t go north go? According to the migration figures offered recently by some countries, most of them go south. Brazil, in particular, received this year the largest number of Cubans in its history: almost 19,700 between January and November, according to a report published last Friday by Folha de Sao Paulo. Of them, the vast majority (19,100) asked for refuge, and another 678 entered by “other ways.”
The numbers, which do not yet include December, far exceed those of past years. In 2023, there were 13,100 Cubans, and in 2022, 7,600. In November, the number of asylum requests in Brazil by Cubans (2,700) surpassed for the first time Venezuelans (2,200), who until now were the nationality that requested it the most.
More than 50% of these migrants, the local newspaper continues, arrive in Brazil through the states of Amapá and Roraima, after setting foot on Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana
Folha also reports that the entries far exceed those of the time of the Mais Médicos program, between 2013 and 2018, in which there were 8,471 Cuban health workers.
More than 50% of these migrants, the local newspaper continues, arrive in Brazil through the states of Amapá and Roraima, after setting foot on Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, either by plane – to the Surinamese capital, Paramaribo, and then to the Guyanese, Georgetown -, or by crossing from Suriname all of French Guyana, by land and boat, until they reach the Brazilian municipality of Oiapoque.
For some Cubans, says Folha, “Brazil is seen as welcoming and a good place to find work, especially in the informal sector.” With the request for refuge, in fact, they are given a document that allows them to work and have access to the Brazilian public health system.
But, the newspaper also points out, “not all Cubans have their final destination in the country.” A minority continue on a route through seven countries and dangers such as the Darién jungle, between Colombia and Panama, or organized crime in Mexico, to the United States. This year, 735 Cubans passed through the Darien, a considerable figure despite not even coming close to the 17,000 Cuban migrants in 2021.
Many more continue on to Uruguay or Chile, “which are more stable and secure societies and where Spanish is spoken.”
In Uruguay, for example, the number of Cuban children enrolled in public schools has increased sevenfold since 2018. With 1,541, they are the most numerous nationality after Venezuelans (1,776), according to the most recent report of the National Administration of Public Education (Anep), out of a total of 6,492 students who were born abroad.
Anep points out that Uruguay “has a regulatory framework that protects the right to migration and the protection of the rights of the migrant population; in particular, access and integration into the educational system.”
According to the 2023 Uruguayan census, Venezuelans, Argentines and Cubans, in this order, are the foreigners who have settled the most in that South American country in recent years.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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