Cuban Migration To Miami - Emerging Notion of The "ethnic Citizen"

Emerging Notion of The "ethnic Citizen"

With growing Cuban migration to Miami, ethnicity has reached the forefront of political and social discourse. Increasingly, the notion of an ethnic citizen has become prevalent in 20th-century Miami. With the segregation of Cubans from Miami's white and black communities, it has become easier to attach ethnic labels to Cubans. Furthermore, the appeal to ethnicity has often mobilized ethnic groups within Miami. "The term "ethnic citizen" is intended to flag the disquietude that the transformation of immigrants into ethnics since the 1960s poses for the many Americans who find references to ethnicity troubling and dangerous. Miami … increasingly defines citizenship in ethnic terms. This does not mean that individual and group behavior is determined solely or even predominantly by membership in an ethnic community, but that the progressive globalization in … Miami-Dade County tends to highlight differences between and among groups".

The notion of the ethnic citizen is further perpetuated by the news and media within Miami because they attach ethnic categorizations to isolated events. This creates feelings of alienation and vulnerability on an individual basis within larger ethnic communities. This often leads one to a life of crime and anti-social behavior which constricts assimilation. "Ethnic participation in criminal activities is as old as the establishment of the first ethnic communities in nineteenth-century cities. The search for security behind walled and gated communities in Miami … affects directly the nature of civil discourse in democratic societies. The globalization of the drug trade, immigrant smuggling, and money laundering are defining characteristics of many of the cities' poorest neighborhoods".

Thus, a major challenge that Miami faces is to create social institutions that are inclusive and that counter-act the notion of ethnic alienation and discrimination.

On the other hand, many Cuban-Americans have no desire whatsoever to embrace globalization, multiculturalism, or any activity or entity that classifies them as an "ethnic citizens."