Alex Stepick "Immigrants, Race and Power in Miami: Reconfiguring Relations" November 20, 2003

Professor Alex Stepick spoke about the changing nature of identity among the immigrant and second-generation populations in Miami in the past 20 years, emphasizing the constant formulation and reformulation of identity in an environment with successive waves of immigration.

Becoming American in Miami: Reconsidering Immigration, Race and Ethnic Relations
By Jason Cato, Department of Ethnic Studies

Why do Cuban-Americans like Miami so much? Answer: Because it is so close to the United States. As is so often the case with humor, this joke highlights a deeper reality. In the wake of the 1959 Cuban revolution, exiles from the Caribbean island have transformed Miami into what many regard as the de facto capital of Latin America. These political refugees virulently oppose communism and the dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Amid the political turbulence of the Cold War, these Cuban exiles encountered a United States willing to shower unprecedented benefits upon them — which they readily seized. In a short amount of time, these Cubans achieved an overwhelming presence in the business, socio-cultural and political landscapes of the city once regarded as the quintessential location for retiring white northerners.

Yet the astounding achievements of Miami’s Cubans belie a darker side to the city’s racial and ethnic relations. Unlike the Cuban exiles whom the U.S. government openly welcomed during the Cold War, Haitian immigrants, also known pejoratively as “the Boat People,” faced the seemingly insurmountable barrier of a harsh racism ingrained in the history, culture and institutions of the U.S. For the Haitians migrating to the U.S., cultural difference has not been a unifying force affirming a sense of collective pride. Rejection and alienation dominate their welcome in the U.S..

Alex Stepick, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Florida International University, sees these two profoundly differing experiences as key to reframing the debates on immigration and the dynamics of assimilation and acculturation. In rising to dominate the centers of power in Miami, Cuban-Americans have reversed the traditional cycles of assimilation and acculturation. Latinization of resident Anglos competes with Anglicization of Latinos. But the Haitian experience in Miami offers a study in contrast. Racialized as the unwelcome other, many Haitians internalize the fear and hatred driving racism in the U.S.. Stepick argues that with little access to resources, Haitians in Miami’s inner city integrate into the existing social structure through a process of “segmentary assimilation.” Hiding their Haitian roots, these immigrants tend to adopt the appearances and styles of African-American inner city youth, revealing the power local context has in shaping the path assimilation takes.

The contrasting experiences of Cubans and Haitians embodied in the multicultural landscape of Miami presents a case whose implications have important consequences for how the U.S. negotiates larger questions about the meaning and unity of “the nation.”
Miami-Dade county has the highest percentage of immigrants of any metropolitan area in the U.S., surpassing Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. More than 50 percent of the county’s population is foreign born. And according to the 2000 census, over 60 percent were Latino, making Latinos the largest minority statewide. Perhaps more significant than their demographic dominance are the collective achievements of Latinos, specifically of Cuban-Americans, in politics, business and in the socio-cultural landscape, said Stepick. Miami is the only place in the U.S. where immigrants have established a successful, self-sustaining ethnic enclave in which co-ethnics have a high likelihood of interacting with each other in the formal and informal routines of everyday life.

Given their deep penetration into the social, economic and political landscape of the city, Miami Cubans have reversed the normal flow of assimilation for immigrants settling in the U.S.. According to Stepick, understanding the place of local power is crucial to making sense of the Cuban-American case. Rather than being forced to assimilate, shed Spanish for English and adopt “American” cultural practices, Miami Cubans have occasioned what Stepick calls “reverse acculturation.” Established resident Anglos are forced to adapt in the face of cultural transformations, political dominance and economic influence initiated by the influx of Cubans following the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

What accounts for the specific course of assimilation and acculturation, as well as the unique achievements, experienced by Miami’s Cubans? Stepick points to three types of capital: economic, social and political. Economic capital came both from the fact that the first wave of Cuban immigrants were largely professionals or those from the privileged sectors of Cuban society as well as from unprecedented federal benefits, including 50 percent of all small business loans between 1960 and 1980 and employment opportunities through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), based at the University of Miami. This economic capital created the conditions that incorporated and eased the resettlement for later-arriving Cuban refugees from less privileged backgrounds, said Stepick.

Social capital figures into the success of Miami’s Cubans primarily in terms of the creation of a social or moral community of enormous solidarity, as Cubans turn to other Cubans for access to resources. In turn, this provides opportunities in the workplace and the broader social landscape that requires little acculturation. As such, Spanish has not faded away but remains the dominant language in the personal and communal lives as well as in the professional contexts of Miami Cubans.

Lastly, according to Stepick, political capital was largely secured by virtue of the Cuban exiles’ legal classification as political refugees, entitling them to rights and access to resources inaccessible to other immigrants.

Stepick argues that Miami offers numerous lessons likely to foretell the changes and challenges underway throughout much of the U.S.. What does it mean to be an “American”? What does it mean to be a Cuban or Haitian in the U.S.? These questions, in light of the ambivalence characterizing the paths of assimilation and acculturation in Miami, reveal the emergent nature of identity. Formed through social interaction and embedded in structural contexts of power, the divergent experiences of Cubans and Haitians in Miami bring out two central dynamics shaping the multicultural United States. The hegemony of white supremacy in local contexts indelibly affects how immigrants are incorporated into the body of the nation. However, assimilation is never a one-way street. As the Cuban-American experience in Miami demonstrates, interaction between diverse groups transforms not only newcomer immigrants but established residents as well. Becoming “American,” then, means that both immigrants and established U.S. citizens are in the process of creating and negotiating the meaning of identity in and for the nation.

Alex Stepick is Director of the Immigration and Ethnicity Institute and Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Florida International University in Miami. He presented his paper ”Immigrants, Race and Power in Miami: Reconfiguring Relations“ at The Women’s Faculty Club on November 20, 2003.

Dr. Stepick, pictured talking to a student after the event, has been conducting research on the impact of immigration on Miami for the past 20 years. His co-authored book, City on the Edge, on how immigration has changed Miami, has won two national awards, the Robert Park Award for the best book in Urban Sociology and the Anthony Leeds Award for the best book in Urban Anthropology. His recent book, Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States has already gone through numerous printings.