Against all odds, France is hardening its laws to prevent Cubans from requesting asylum in that country. But something doesn't quite fit. Europe, as the self-proclaimed archetype for protecting the rights of "refugees," always welcomes those who are trying to escape persecution, and Cubans are supposedly "desperate" to flee the island.

Nonetheless, a newswire from France's AFP news agency leaves no doubt:

"The National Association of Borders for Foreigners on February 8 denounced the policy of France's Interior Ministry that discreetly but firmly "closes the door" on Cubans seeking asylum.

As of January 2006, Cubans passing through transit areas in French airports must have a special visa allowing them to be in those areas.

In the same report, AFP makes it clear that these visas are difficult to obtain and that travelers will not be allowed to board planes without receiving these visas in advance.

By adopting this measure, France places Cubans among a group of 30 foreign nationalities that must obtain this type of visa to travel to a French airport.

This clearly shows that France does not regard the tired old equation of "Cuban emigrant = Cuban refugee." No matter how you look at it, it is evident that Jacques Chirac's government has finally discovered what has always been patently obvious.

From Pro-Batista Tycoons to Rafters and Mariel Boat People

The meaning of the term "Cuban emigration" has changed in the course of the history of Cuba-US relations. Over the years, the Cuban community in the United States has changed. At first Cuban emigrants were made up of landowners, businesspeople, politicians from the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship and nearly 3,000 war criminals that fled the island after the dictatorship was overthrown by Fidel Castro. Over time this has changed to emigrants who go the United States for a variety of reasons.

The year 1980 marked a turning point in this respect, when 125,000 Cubans, usually called "Marielitos" in reference to the fact that they emigrated by way of boats that came from the US to pick them up at the Mariel port in western Cuba. Their nickname is a reminder to American society that they were considered different from their predecessors. The same happened with the "rafters," that is, those who came to the US by homemade rafts after 1994.

After the triumph of the Cuban revolution, the position of several US administrations has been inconsistent with the traditional manner with which the rest of Latin American communities in the United States have been treated.

While for Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and especially Mexicans and Haitians, Washington's laws have increasingly meant fewer possibilities to integrate into American society, for Cubans the policy has been quite different.

During the 1960s, the United States spent over a billion dollars on the Cuban Refugee Program, which sought to help settle, find jobs, and cover the expenses of any Cuban who arrived in that country complaining about socialism. Such a program far outstripped the opportunities which Polish, Hungarians, and other citizens from Eastern European countries enjoyed during the Cold War period.

Since 1966, by virtue of the Cuban Adjustment Act, any Cuba who arrives on US soil is eligible for permanent residency status in that country, even though they may have hijacked an airplane or boat to achieve their objective; even if this costs the lives of fellow passengers or crew members. Prior to the skyjacking of airliners in the 1970s by radical Muslim groups, several Cuban planes had been forced to land in the United States. However, while the Islamic groups were described as "terrorists," the Cubans were termed "refugees."

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, Cuba has gone from the second step in the ladder of countries that send emigrants to the United States to the tenth position by 2003, along with smaller countries such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador. Despite that fact, the US Small Business Administration has for years preferred to finance ventures by Cubans over other immigrant minorities,

Therefore, the Cuban Refugee Program, the Cuban Adjustment Act, and the "goodwill" of small-business sponsors added to the millions dollars stolen from the island by the first and true exiles has not only contributed to the myth of the Cuban "refugees," but also to that of a supposed "prosperity" of the Cuban community in the United States.

Although the statistics speak for themselves, the migration issue between Cuba and the United States continues to be in the hands of ultra-right-wing Cuba-Americans and the Neo-Conservatives, who are trying to provoke a break in the migratory agreement adopted during Clinton's administration. This had been the only constructive advance made to achieve an orderly and safe flow of people between the two countries.

If the agreements are still in place, it is because Havana has shown itself to have the patience of Job, because US authorities continue to admit all criminals who hijack Cuban aircraft or give slaps on the hands to those involved in the lucrative and growing business of human trafficking into the United States. Those actions have been geared to provoke a migratory crisis in order to justify a military invasion of the island

The myth of the refugees was forged to support the counter-revolutionary interest of discrediting the Cuban socialist model and was strengthened by the application of strategies aimed at straining US-Cuba relations.