The Magnetism of Miami: Segmented Paths in Cuban Migration

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Miami is the primate city in a system of urban settlements that make up a Cuban ethnic archipelago in the United States. The city is also a national magnet, attracting Cuban migrants from metropolitan regions across the archipelago. Four large secondary cores of Cubans outside Florida serve as major “feeders” to the Miami enclave: northern New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Currents of migration to Miami are especially strong among older, foreign‐born, and disadvantaged Cubans, an indication of segmented paths in Cuban assimilation. Although concentration in Metropolitan Miami has been the Cuban story over the past three decades, processes of deconcentration now may well be under way.

Segmented Paths and the Differential Role of Primate Immigrant Centers

“…Although informative and influential within immigration studies, the framework has received far less attention from a spatial perspective or geographical tradition (Wright and Ellis 2000), with the work by McHugh, Miyares, and Skop (1997) an exception. Typically, application of the framework has invoked local (and consequently limited) effects only.…”

“…Second, as McHugh, Miyares, and Skop (1997) argue, the segmented assimilation framework can be extended to consider the patterns and selectivity of migration. In this way, the geography and selectivity of migration represents a lens through which to view assimilation, exposing complexities and differences in migration and assimilation.…”

Placing Immigrant Incorporation: Identity, Trust, and Civic Engagement in Little Havana

“…The heavy flow of immigrants settling in South Florida has resulted in an intricate mix of peoples, languages, and ideas, and has produced a unique local, Latinized culture. It has even been argued by some scholars that Miami is the capital of the Caribbean (McHugh et al, 1997;Portes and Stepick, 1993) and of Latin America Nijman, 2000).…”

“…Cubans moving in and also of non-Cubans moving out (Shoer Roth, 2008;George, 2006 (Croucher, 2002;Booth, 1998;McHugh et al, 1997). Analysis of Census data reveals that for every immigrant arriving in the Miami-Dade County in recent years, an Anglo has left the county (Booth, 1998), though a direct causal relationship has yet to be proven.…”

Perceiving Spanish in Miami: The Interaction of Dialect and National Labeling

“…For this reason, I refer to this stimulus more commonly as "family background" or "social" information. Crucially, this stimulus represents a sociological reality in Miami -the continually mobile population of very diverse heritages (McHugh, Miyares, and Skop 1997). This is to say that due to the current demographics of Miami and the general South Florida region, it is very believable that Spanish-speakers' parents may originate from a different country, be it Spain, Colombia, Cuba, or a number of other countries.…”