Cuban Privilege
The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America

The first book to document the unique yet strategic entitlements granted to Cubans over other immigrants to the US.

Susan Eva Eckstein (Author)

9781108830614, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 June 2022

300 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.9 cm, 0.72 kg

'Cuban Privilege will likely be the authoritative text on the making of immigrant inequality in the US and will be an exceptional complement to Latin American studies literature and ethnic studies courses. … Highly recommended.' T. M. Montoya, Choice

For over half a century the US granted Cubans, one of the largest immigrant groups in the country, unique entitlements. While other unauthorized immigrants faced detention, deportation, and no legal rights, Cuban immigrants were able to enter the country without authorization, and have access to welfare benefits and citizenship status. This book is the first to reveal the full range of entitlements granted to Cubans. Initially privileged to undermine the Castro-led revolution in the throes of the Cold War, one US President after another extended new entitlements, even in the post-Cold War era. Drawing on unseen archives, interviews, and survey data, Cuban Privilege highlights how Washington, in the process of privileging Cubans, transformed them from agents of US Cold War foreign policy into a politically powerful force influencing national policy. Comparing the exclusionary treatment of neighboring Haitians, the book discloses the racial and political biases embedded within US immigration policy.

List of figures
Preface: Privileged Cubans
List of acronyms
1. The making of Cuban immigration exceptionalism, 1959–1979
2. The privileging of Cuban immigrants in the United States, 1959–1979
3. The immigration crisis of 1980: Carter Administration privileging of Cubans anew, spillover benefits for Haitians
4. Delinking Cubans from Haitians: The deepening of Cuban privileging and the turn against Haitians under the Reagan and Bush I administrations
5. Taking with one hand, giving with the other: Clinton administration retraction and expansion of Cuban immigrant entitlements
6. From extension to retraction of Cuban immigrant entitlements amidst mainly exclusion of Haitians: The George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations
7. From heaven to hell under the Trump administration: Walls for Cubans after all
8. Exceptionalism in practice? Actual immigration, lessons learned.

Subject Areas: Diplomatic law [LBBD], Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]