International Migration in Cuba by Margarita Cervantes-Rodríguez

Author:Margarita Cervantes-Rodríguez [Cervantes-Rodríguez, Margarita]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Emigration & Immigration
ISBN: 9780271035390
Google: zMfsVb9eh-QC
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2011-05-31T03:23:14+00:00

Labor Shortages, Underemployment, and the Mobility of the Population

Labor shortages in the production of sugar, and in the harvesting of coffee and other crops, have been a structural feature of Cuba’s economy since 1959. However, in sharp contrast with previous acute labor shortages in agricultural production, mainly the sugar industry, this phenomenon has not been related to an impressive expansion in production but to a chronic absolute or relative reduction in the number of workers. A combination of factors explains this outcome. They range from the bias against the owners of small farms and the peasantry and their traditional livelihood—which had historically relied on the cultivation of small parcels of land for self-sufficiency, the private ownership of land and means of production and even the occasional hiring of labor—to population displacements; a sudden increase in social mobility opportunities available to sectors of the rural population, including young men and women, as educational opportunities increased together with employment in the service economy; the expansion of the military; and rising expectations regarding job mobility and educational training. The Cuban government has addressed labor shortages through the voluntary and forced (mainly through political mechanisms) recruitment of university students, young men serving compulsory military service, Young Workers’ Brigades (Brigadas Juveniles del Trabajo), Young Military Workers’ Army (Ejército Juvenil del Trabajo) and other people to cut sugar cane, harvest agricultural products, or participate in any other stage of agricultural production. Seasonal labor shortages in the production of tobacco, coffee, citrus fruits, and other crops have been filled by male and female students from high schools and universities, including students from Africa and other areas who have been granted education in Cuba in exchange for their labor and as part of a broader foreign policy strategy focused on creating allies globally. The use of “brigades” constituted of workers and students for what Carmelo Mesa-Lago (1982) calls “the transfer of urban labor surplus to the agricultural sector” have played an important part in ameliorating chronic labor shortages in the agricultural sector. Sectoral labor scarcity in professional activities has also become a structural feature of Cuba’s political economy since 1959, and has increased with the growing exodus of professionals. This phenomenon has been approached by combining an aggressive educational policy to be able to replace those who left and restrictions on emigration based on age or professional expertise. Labor shortages in some sectors ran parallel to relative labor surpluses in others, including mostly urban activities, given the stagnation or poor performance of the latter. Thus seasonal and sectoral labor shortages have become inextricably linked with underemployment and disguised unemployment.24 In this context, the Cuban government has implemented labor-exporting strategies through “internationalist brigades” and more formal “guest-worker” types of agreements signed with other governments, either bilaterally or multilaterally, in which the Cuban government has exchanged labor for currency, goods, or political capital. These strategies were put in place during the first years of the revolution and still exist. They have encompassed qualified workers and professionals in occupations related to

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