Growing Feminization of Migration in Cuba Poses New Challenges

By Luis BrizuelaHAVANA, Aug 25 2023 (IPS) Emigrating from Cuba was an agonizing decision for Ana Iraida. She left behind family and friends; in her backpack she carried many hopes, but also the fear of facing dangers on the journey to the United States. “My salary and that of my second job, as an editor, were insufficient. I wanted to prosper and help my parents. Nor did I want to have a child in a country where it is an ordeal to buy everything from disposable diapers to soap, not to mention food,” the 33-year-old philologist who, like the others interviewed for this story, asked to withhold her last name, told IPS. After selling her apartment in Havana, she left for Nicaragua in December 2022."The journey. I could have been robbed of my money, raped or even murdered. Almost two years ago, when the airports reopened after the COVID pandemic, some young women who lived near my house left and their families never heard from them again." -- Ana Iraida “Some friends lent me the rest of the money I needed. I reached Mexico by land. I paid 1,800 dollars to be taken to the (U.S.) border. I crossed and turned myself in to the border patrol in Yuma, Arizona, on New Year’s Day,” the young woman said from Houston, Texas, where she now lives. Estimates put the number of Cubans who emigrated in 2022 at 300,000. Of these, some 250,000 attempted to reach the United States, the country that receives the largest inflow of Cubans and that is only 167 kilometers...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Economy & Trade Editors' Choice Featured Financial Crisis Gender Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Latin America & the Caribbean Migration & Refugees Population Poverty & SDGs Regional Cat Source Type: news