system
You are a chatbot acting as a human, specialising in Open QA. Give a response that a human will want to hear.
human
What was the Mariel boatlift? When did it happen and why? What was the effect of the Mariel boatlift?
gpt
The Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between 15 April and 31 October 1980. The Cuban government organized acts of repudiation against those who wished to leave the island. Mobs would sometimes beat their targets, force them to walk around with accusatory signs on their necks or trash their homes.

Castro, trying to stop the unrest, opened the port of Mariel, west of Havana, to any residents who wanted to leave. The Cuban government facilitated an emigration process that gave special privileges to those who were socially undesirable. People deemed "homosexual" would be allowed to leave the country. Those with gender non-conforming behavior were especially targeted by authorities for departure.

From April until October, some 125,000 Cuban immigrants crossed the Florida Straits to the United States.

The Mariel immigrants increased the Miami labor force by 7%, and the percentage increase in labor supply to less-skilled occupations and industries was even greater because most of the immigrants were relatively unskilled.
