[LINK] "Cuba's young see bleak future, many want to leave"

[rfmcdonald]

Jeff Franks' recent Reuters article makes the compelling case that, given continued stasis in Cuba, the pressure for emigration among the young is going to continue to grow. This will have obvious long-term consequences for Cuba, whatever its post-Castro system will be.

Cuba's outward tide looks unlikely to end any time soon, and may increase.

The government relaxed laws in January, making it easier for Cubans to leave the country, which U.S. officials in Havana say has led to a 10 percent increase in inquiries about visas.

Before the change, most visa applications came from the elderly but now most are coming from young people, they said.

Schools in Havana offering classes in foreign languages, particularly English and French, are overloaded with young applicants.

[. . .]

"One of the things that's ironic is Cuba has an educated population, but it doesn't have anything for them to do. They've almost prepared their professionals to emigrate," said Cuba expert Ted Henken at Baruch College in New York.

"I think in some ways the Cuban revolution is the best thing that ever happened to Miami, because half of their professional force was probably trained there," he said.

In a world where population growth is exploding and a region where countries have high birth rates and low median ages, Cuba's population is declining and getting older.

Preliminary figures from a national census last year showed that the number of Cubans had slightly declined from 2002 to about 11 million people.

The median age of Cubans has risen to about 39 from 36 in the 2002 census, according to a U.S. government estimate, far above that of any other country in Latin America.