The ‘Cuban safety-valve theory’ explains sustained survival of Cuban socialism in part through the high levels of emigration, following Hirschman’s model of ‘exit’ undermining ‘voice’. The article argues that this remains insufficient in two important ways. Taking a closer look at the crisis years since 1989, at least as important as the opening of exit options was the Cuban state’s capacity to rein in uncontrolled emigration and to reassure its ‘gatekeeper role’. In addition, the transnationalization of voice and exit must be taken into account as a crucial factor, as much in feeding the regime’s anti-imperialist discourse as, paradoxically, by generating sustained economic support from the emigrants.
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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Public Economics with number
0508005.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies O15 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
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