There is absolutely no doubt that the Cuban economy is suffering through a severe crisis. However, mass emigration offers some benefits to the Communist regime. Many of the migrants who work in the USA send money back to their families in Cuba in the form of remittances, which provide valuable foreign exchange reserves to help pay for essential imports. Moreover, emigration provides an escape for those people who might otherwise form a potentially powerful class of under-employed and politically discontent civilians. If Cuba’s emigrants were still living on the island, then the Communist regime would have good reason to worry about a mass revolution, as shown by the experience of the Arab Spring, when authoritarian governments in Syria, Libya and Egypt, each struggling with rising demographic pressures and economic stagnation, were destabilized by popular rebellion. The Communist elite is certainly aware of the dangers to its regime from a potential “Cuban Spring,” and thus likely regards mass emigration as a welcome alternative, despite the obvious social liabilities of losing so much human capital.