In Cuba, Havana is home to almost 20% of the island's population, but migration to the capital is not the highest among the different strata, according to statistics from the Center for Population Studies.
Migration in Cuba is stratified: people move mainly from rural areas to small towns, then to municipal seats, and finally to large cities. On the other hand, the number of people leaving Havana for the provinces and rural areas is very low, with less than one migrant per thousand inhabitants.
According to the last census in 2012, 88.8% of the population lives in their province of origin, but in recent years the trend has been towards increasing concentration in urban areas. About 22% of Cubans migrate for economic reasons.
Additionally, 38% of Cubans have family living abroad, representing nearly 1.5 million separated families. Of those living abroad, 77% regularly send aid, mainly in the form of remittances, which account for 95% of this assistance.
According to the UN, Cuba has more than 1.65 million emigrants, or about 15% of the population. This places the country in 140th place in the world for emigrants among 195 countries. Cubans emigrate mainly to the United States (80.82%), followed by Spain (8.55%) and Italy (2.25%).
The Cuban community in the United States is the largest outside Cuba and the fifth largest Hispanic community. There are more than 1.34 million Cuban immigrants, mostly in Florida, but also in California, New Jersey, New York and Texas.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Cuba was a country of immigration. However, since the 1930s, the migratory flow has reversed, and the Cuban Revolution of 1959 accentuated this phenomenon. Many Cubans left their country, mainly due to the nationalization of the economy. Between the 1960s and 1970s, approximately 250,000 Cubans emigrated to Florida.
Various events led to further mass departures, including the Mariel exodus in 1980, in which 125,000 Cubans left the island. In 1994, Fidel Castro announced that the border guards would be withdrawn, leading to the "balseros crisis", with more than 30,000 Cubans attempting to flee by sea, often in perilous conditions.
Currently, there is a visa lottery for Cubans, allowing about 20,000 people to travel to the United States each year. In 1998, more than 500,000 Cubans applied for the lottery.
Since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, more than half a million Cubans residing in North America have been able to return to the island where they were born.
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