Cubans Find Employment Opportunities at Mexico City's Vast Central de Abasto

Hundreds of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and various other countries have made Mexico City's Central de Abasto their new starting point. After giving up on the American dream, they find work navigating the corridors and warehouses of the world's largest wholesale food market, as reported by Univision/N+ this Thursday.

This enormous facility, located in the Iztapalapa district and spanning 327 hectares, handles around 30,000 tons of goods daily and offers approximately 70,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Welcoming Migrants Amid Local Labor Shortages

Due to a shortage of local labor, merchants have opened their doors to migrants from countries including Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic, according to the report.

Jobs range from loading and unloading food to working in warehouses and assisting in retail shops. Ramiro Encino, one of the business owners at the market, emphasized the necessity of employing migrants: "It's a need for us. They come every day; they're very hardworking. I have 143 migrants," he stated.

Opportunities Without Discrimination

The absence of discrimination is highly valued by those working there. "There's a lot of opportunity here, and they don't check for race or color or anything. If you can work, you get a job, no matter where you're from," a Haitian migrant shared during an interview.

Cuban workers earn between 300 and 500 pesos daily for shifts lasting up to ten hours, amounting to between 1,500 and 2,500 pesos weekly.

Challenging Conditions and Changing Migration Patterns

The work is demanding, and earnings barely cover rent costs, which can reach up to 5,000 pesos monthly. However, many prefer this precarious stability over the uncertainty of heading north.

This trend highlights a significant shift in migration patterns. The tightening of U.S. border policies since 2025 has drastically reduced illegal crossings, prompting thousands of Cubans to remain in Mexico as a destination rather than just a transit point.

In 2025, Mexico received nearly 40,000 asylum applications from Cuban nationals, and the percentage of Cubans holding humanitarian visitor cards skyrocketed from 23% to 78% within a single year.

Deportations and Long-Term Settlements

Deportation numbers add to the situation: a Human Rights Watch report notes that between January 2025 and March 2026, the United States deported 4,353 Cubans to Mexico, making them the largest group among nationals from third countries sent there. Since June 2025, more Cubans have been deported monthly to Mexico than to Cuba.

For at least five years, Central de Abasto has been integrating migrants into its workforce through an informal program that has registered over 4,000 individuals from various nationalities, according to Mexican media.

Many lack official documentation, excluding them from formal employment and driving them towards these types of markets.

However, the presence of Cubans at this establishment dates back even further. In Mexico City, Cubans have long spread the word that "under the Chinese lamps in the carrot section, the Cuban stall sells the best yuca and malanga."

A 2025 UN migration statistics bulletin recorded 155,730 instances of individuals in irregular migration status in Mexico, illustrating the scale of the phenomenon partly absorbed by Central de Abasto's warehouses and carts.

For many migrants, life in Mexico has become a long-term gamble. A Dominican migrant interviewed by Univision expressed it clearly: "My children are in the Dominican Republic. What's the plan? To bring them here. I like Mexico; my country is not stable yet."