Cuba`s ‘migratory stampede’ has no end in sight

HAVANA — Cuban lab chemist Deisy Herrera was crushed when her two sons left the island in search of a better life.

“Those were terrible times,” the 61-year old pharmaceutical worker said in tears during an interview at her home in Havana. “When you have kids, you never think they will leave. But we all know the situation here.” It is no secret that Cuba`s economic crisis has prompted a record-breaking exodus of its citizens – far exceeding similar mass migrations off the island, including the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

But even within Cuba, population scientists debate the scope of the country`s population decline, with recent estimates ranging from around 10% since 2020, to nearly one in five residents in the past two years alone. “There are other countries where (that) has happened, but they have been in wartime,” said Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos, a Cuba-based economist and population scientist who works for the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue in Cuba.