Remittances and Their Unintended Consequences in Cuba

SummaryAfter Soviet aid and trade ended Cuba was forced to reintegrate into the capitalist world economy. Needing hard currency, the government transformed the diaspora into a dollar attaining strategy, by facilitating and tacitly encouraging remittance-sending. Ordinary Cubans themselves wanted remittances to finance a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford. Despite their shared interest in remittances, the government increasingly appropriated remittances at recipients’ expense. The article documents why the government encouraged remittance-sending, tensions between its interests in remittances and those of recipients, and contradictions inherent in the hard currency accumulation strategy that the government pursued while remaining politically committed to revolution-linked precepts.