Versión español

Vintage postcard

Puerto Rican migration to the United States during the 1950s represents one of the largest outflows of people relative to the island's population base. A net migration of almost half a million people, out of a total island population of 2.2 million, represents a remarkable 21 percent emigrationemigration: Movement of a group or an entire people that consists of leaving their place of origin to establish themselves, generally, in another place because of economic reasons or natural phenomena. rate, one of the highest in modern times (Tables 1-2) [Tabla1] [Tabla2]The Puerto Rican migratory movement to the U.S. metropolis has continued in subsequent decades, but it clearly has not yet reached the levels of the 1950s Great Migration.

Two interesting patterns have developed among the U.S. Puerto Rican population since the 1980s: its mobility and its geographic dispersion to new states and regions. Based on the analysis of 1990 Census data, researchers Francisco Rivera-Batiz and Carlos E. Santiago in their book Puerto Ricans in the United States: A Changing Reality (1994) pointed to the initial stages these patterns, when they noted that more than a third (33.8 percent) of Puerto Ricans residing in the United States at the time, moved from one residence to another in the previous five years. They also noted that it was not solely the volume of mobility—the number of people who moved frequently—but a new pattern of geographic dispersion and settlementsettlement: establishment of a human group in a geographic area. throughout the United States. During previous decades, several researchers had noted the continuous migration between Puerto Rico and the United States—often referred to as commuter migration, revolving door migration, back and forth migration, or circular migration. But now the new pattern of geographic dispersion is producing notable changes in the U.S. cities and regions where Puerto Ricans reside.

Puerto Ricans have been largely concentrated in the Northeast of the United States, where, according to the 1970 Census, over 80 percent of the migration population resided. Another 9 percent lived in the Midwest, mostly in Chicago and parts of Ohio. This settlement pattern changed dramatically between 1970 and 2000 (Figure 1)[Figure1]. Between 1970 and 2000, Puerto Ricans gravitated to the South, moved within the Northeast, maintained their presence in the Midwest, and were found in every state of the union (Figure 2)[Figura2].

Historically, and until the 1970s, more than 80 percent of all Puerto Ricans in the United States resided in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. In the year 2000, a similar proportion of the Puerto Rican population resided in New York, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, and California. Most noteworthy was the growing percentage of the Puerto Rican population residing in Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and the declining percentage in New York and California during the same period. These demographic changes are illustrated by the tables on the growth and population distribution of Puerto Ricans throughout the United States between 1980 and 2000 (Tables 3-4)[Tabla3] [Tabla4].

Puerto Ricans in the United States, by and large, reside in urban areas. For many decades, New York was the great hub of destination. The thousands who arrived during the Great MigrationThe Great Migration: A migratory wave that occurred from 1945 until mid 1970s, during which approximately one million Puerto Ricans left the Island because of unemployment and overpopulation, and moved mainly to New York City in search of a better quality of life. years found themselves in a disadvantaged position with respect to housing and employment segregation and racial prejudice in New York City. The great majority of Puerto Rican migrants during this period were from the working class and from rural o semi-urban areas of Puerto Rico, and upon their arrival, they made up the growing low-wage labor force in the city in the light-manufacturing sector, especially in the garment district. The early large-scale migration from Puerto Rico to New York City, Chicago, and the Northeast coincided with a sustained period of economic change in these areas. There was increasing evidence that the United States was embarking on a process of economic change, later referred to as "deindustrialization," which culminated in New York City's fiscal default in the mid-1970s. For Puerto Ricans these changes had serious consequences for their socioeconomic status, and there was a significant increase in their unemployment and poverty rates.

Despite all these changes, New York City still has the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 789,172 Puerto Ricans reside there, representing about 23 percent of the total population of the diaspora. Chicago, with a population of 113,055, and Philadelphia with 91,525, had the next largest numbers. But whereas the size of the Puerto Rican population declined in New York City between 1980 and 2000, and remained relatively constant in Chicago over that period time, the Puerto Rican population in Philadelphia almost doubled. Other large cities that have experienced substantial Puerto Rican population growth over the last two decades are Boston, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. Another indication of this pattern of geographic dispersion is the fact that, in 1980, 63 percent of the total U.S. Puerto Rican population lived in the 32 cities with the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans, but in the year 2000, these same cities contained only 46 percent of the total.

Another important demographic change is the considerable growth, since 1980, of the Puerto Rican population in mid-size U.S. cities. Most noteworthy are Hartford, Connecticut; and Jersey City, New Jersey, cities not very distant from New York City. Even more significant has been the phenomenal growth of the Puerto Rican population in Orlando and Tampa, Florida during this period (Tables 3-4) [Tabla3] [Tabla4].

It is clear that Puerto Ricans have been opting for a more suburban lifestyle in the cities already mentioned, if they have the means to do so. Reasons include it is for better housing or employment, better schools, more affordable communities, or simply a change of lifestyle to a more sedate environment than the one found in the large and overcrowded metropolitan centers of the United States.