Oct 23
Top officials, social service professionals with high-level responsibilities, science and technology professionals and top athletes and trainers; will have to wait for up to 3-5 years after applying for permission to live abroad; during which time they will be required to train a replacement.
Thanks for the clarifying article on this issue. As you point out
“Clearly, the approval process will be neither speedy or smooth. Results will be monitored continuously at the highest political level.”
In fact this will make the bottle neck even worse than the altenative of reducing “the power of patronage and the potential for corruption that would inhere in a decentralised system which vests total power in Authorized employers.”
The problem with “bureaucratic socialism” is that it can still blinker itself to the real if limited benefits of the “blind automatic hand of the market”.
Suppose all Cuban university students getting free education sign a contract that if they emigrate with less than X years of post education service in Cuba they will be required to contribute Y in convertible currency (on a sliding scale, fewer years public service reimbursement of a higher % of their education costs to the state).
They might get some of that money via loan from employer abroad, family members abroad etc.
(ie they introduce a similar system to that operating in many other countries, including for scholarship awardees from Caricom to Cuba who sign contract to return to their home countries and serve x years and if they break contract they must or reimburse the cost of their scholarships.While the scholarship holder is on contract there is a stamp in their passport indicating that they are bound to national service for x years. Caveat Emptor.
i.e. the individual decides which option when entering a contract with the state, not the other way round..
. On the other hand, under this new Cuban system as long as Cubans are not bureaucratically prevented from “taking a holiday abroad” (is this not what the new provisions will allow?), peaple will simply not come back from holiday and the brain drain will escalate.
Given my extensive personal experience of the cuban scholarship programme I cannot see that these additional bureaucratic meaures introduced are likely to regulate an impending brain drain from Cuba when Cubans and their families are allowed to freely travel abroad “on holiday”
Mike–I think the answer to your question is contained in a follow-up analysis by Arboleya that I just inserted at the bottom of the post. To quote Arboleya at length:
“The third category is called “émigré.” The law says: “A Cuban citizen is considered to have emigrated when he travels abroad for private reasons and remains abroad uninterruptedly for more than 24 months without the corresponding authorization, as well as when he sets up domicile abroad without observing the existing emigration regulations.” This, I presume, includes Cubans who abandon missions abroad that were sponsored by the State.
“The term is not exact, because all are viewed as “émigrés,” but in the future it will include those who break their formal ties with the Cuban State, although this category also includes most of the Cubans currently residing abroad, especially in the United States.
“Nevertheless, as I interpret the law and look to the future, this is a transcendental change from the past.
“First, because this status carries the legal subtlety of not including the concept of “definitive,” which opens the possibility of a modification (hypothetically, at least) and second, because from now on nobody leaves the country as a “definitive emigrant,” as in the past. That status can only be assumed through a personal decision, when someone decides not to obey the established regulations.
“Those who decide to assume this status will lose some of the rights granted to other Cuban citizens, as happens with most of the current émigrés. Although their property will not be seized (a provision of the new law), they will not retain its ownership. However, they may sell it or transfer it. Their relatives can claim the property if the emigrants leave the country without specifying the final disposition of said property.
“Because the emigrants have no recognized residence in Cuba, they may not exercise their political rights, such as voting in elections, and may not enjoy the free social services that the country gives its citizens.
“However, the law says that the émigrés can visit Cuba as often as they wish, so long as they have up-to-date passports. They may remain in Cuba up to 90 days and renew their stay by appealing to the competent authorities.”(End of quote).
Of course, the forfeiture of these benefits may not be considered too high a price to pay for the additional income over the remainder of the life-span that would be earned by senior executives, scientists etc.That is, if they are prepared to take the risk that things may not turn out to be as rosy as they expected, AND if monetary considerations are the only things that matter to an individual. Let’s remember that there is such a thing as “psychic income” too!
The alternative solution you propose is interesting. Maybe it will come that at some time in the future.
Finally, I have the impression that in this, as in other aspects of the reforms, the Cuban government is “feeling its way” on this subject. If past experience is a guide, the results will be closely monitored, and the policy adjusted, after careful analysis of the pros and cons.
Its interesting that Arboleya considers the changes “Transcendental”. On the other hand, he does not refer to the restrictions placed on the essential categories that I discussed in my commentary.
Norman
More information provided:
HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 25 (ACN) The modifications of the Cuban Migration Law and proceedings for its implementation as of 14 January 2013 were explained in detail by Cuban government officials during a televised panel on Wednesday.
Along with aspects, such as the revocation of the travel permit and the invitation letter as previous requirements for Cubans to travel abroad, the officials addressed complex issues like the special treatment of directives and executives involved in vital activities, university and high school graduates carrying out key tasks, as well as first-level athletes.
(Rest of this message at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/136178)
Reactions from the Cuban population suggest that the most immediate impact of the new policy will be to improve relations with the Cuban Diaspora (a.k.a. the “emigre” community).
Check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/136207
“those who illegally emigrated after 1994, who were unable indefinitely to date to come back into the country, can now do so if it has been more than eight years since the event that gave rise to the ban occurred. The same will happen with health professionals and elite athletes who abandoned their missions abroad and did not come back, or illegally left the country at a later date than 1990, with the requirement that it has been more than eight years since then”
“of all the Cubans who requested permission to leave, temporarily or permanently, from 2000 until 31 August 2012, some 99.4 percent received permission. This means that only 0.6 per cent, and for good reasons, were denied the permit.
“He also disclosed that from 2000 until August 31, 2012, some 941,953 Cubans went abroad for private reasons, of which only 12.8 percent did not return, a total of 120,705 people.”)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/136209
Norman
Apropos the vital importance of Cuba’s S&T infrastructure:
UNESCO Official: Cuba Plays Key Role against Climate Change
HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 30 (acn) “Cuba plays an outstanding role in the creation of strategies to palliate the effects of climate change” said Cesar Toro, secretary of UNESCO´s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission for the Caribbean region.
The UNESCO expert explained that Cuba has the scientific-technical capacity to create environmental preservation strategies, during the IX Congress on Marine Sciences underway at the Havana’s Conventions Center.
Full report at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/136349