Dual Citizenship and Cuban Immigration Reform

Dual Citizenship and Cuban Immigration Reform
July 17, 2012
Haroldo Dilla Alfonso*

HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban political class has always taken emigration
seriously, just as it has lent itself to as many uses as have suited them.

In some cases it has been used to frighten the public with the
"Plattist" bogyman and exacerbate nationalist tensions, always receiving
the support of a minority of extremist emigrants.

In other cases it has been used to pay back bills, through asking for
remittances and demanding astronomical consular fees. It has even been
used by a segment of partisans — as extreme as the first — those who are
called "patriots," to clean their image before the world and hide their
ever critical and hostile positions against Cuban immigrants.

I don't think that the general/president or his staff has understood one
basic sociological fact: Cuba is a transnational society, since 15-20
percent of its population — the most dynamic part — lives abroad.
Therefore, it's not possible to govern the island without considering
the rights of its emigrants.

Currently, as part of his "updating," Raul Castro has declared — and his
cronies have repeated this to the point of contracting laryngitis — that
they aim is to reform the immigration system. But as is usual for an
authoritarian system, no one knows in what direction they are going to
do this, and there have been no public consultations.

It's not a matter of sensitivity towards compatriots

So, we're all at the mercy of meager goodwill of the Cuban political elite.

Obviously the announced immigration reform isn't an issue that sails on
the political vacuum, nor does it rest on altruistic considerations.
Actually, the interest in emigration on the part of Cuba's authorities
is not based on any special sensitivity to the fate of their compatriots.

They continue to care little about the suffering of a family that is
divided or how doubly tragic it is in the case of the death of a distant
mother who one cannot visit; whenever this intensified pain always
serves to shore up governance.

Although a facelift is always convenient, I don't think the main purpose
of this move is an improved public image.

The challenge now is to move the chips around to increase the use of
money from the emigrants for an economic take-off and to lubricate the
bourgeois conversion of the elite themselves and their heirs.

However there's no consensus among the elite about how many chips you
have to move to make sure of emigrants contribution to the island's
economic recovery.

Such a contribution would be very helpful in any circumstance — as it
has been worldwide in other cultures — but particularly in an economy in
chronic crisis, made more pressing by the drying up of Venezuelan
subsidies and oil that isn't appearing.

For Cubans living on the island the scenario seems clearer, since the
repressive web is so tangled that it's possible to make numerous partial
concessions without advancing, fundamentally, in achieving citizens'
rights to free travel.

Let's say that they can lower fees, eliminate some of the cumbersome
steps and remove prohibitions — all of which are positive — without
Cubans on the island truly achieving the possession of their rights.

What the government is going to win with that measure is some inflamed
applause from the cacophonous minstrels of "orderly transition."

Virtually stateless people

But everything seems to be more confusing for the emigrants. Here they
too can take partial steps — always positive, but insufficient — such as
lifting bans, lowering fees and lengthening the duration of stays of
visiting emigrants.

But in the end there will still remain, and be very visible, the crucial
issue of emigrants: their virtual conversion into a stateless people
stemming from the expropriation of their rights as citizens, including
their right to reside in the place where they were born.

An example of how confusing the scenario is and how serious its results
could be is the issue of dual nationality/citizenship. Recognition or at
least tolerance of multi-nationality is the sign of the times worldwide.
In fact, a high percentage of Cuban emigrants have another nationality
in addition to their Cuban one.

The current constitution of Cuba does not recognize dual nationality,
but the government has never endeavored to operate in that direction,
either because it's something difficult to do or because it's cost
effective to have hundreds of thousands of Cubans paying high consular
fees every two years.

On the contrary, the government requires immigrants to carry a Cuban
passport even if they have another nationality and they don't wish to
retain their Cuban one.

Without a doubt it should be a right of Cubans who want to give up their
nationality to be able to do so and enter the country with the passports
of their new nation.

But those who don't want to give up their nationality should also have
the right to maintain it and enjoy rights as overseas citizens. With
regard to them, if the government were to maintain its reluctance to
recognizing dual citizenship, and if it were to decide to effectively
operate against this situation in which hundreds of thousands of
emigrants find themselves, we would be in the presence of a ruthless
expropriation of national rights.

Although the Cuban government has us accustomed to almost everything
concerning matters of inconsideration and expropriations, I think such a
phenomenon would be very costly not only for emigrants, but for the
entire nation.

In the end, as I said earlier, we are a transnational society consisting
of islanders and immigrants – despite our insularity.
—–

(*) Havana Times translation of the original published by Cubaencuentro.com

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=74499