Irma E. Garca
The Puerto Rican migration to the Mainland is mostly motivated by economic conditions. For this reason the vast majority of the immigrants are economically deprived. Unlike other migrant minorities amd because of their special political status, Puerto Ricans do not have to make a firm commitment to stay in the continental United States. This has created a unique two-way migration movement. Another reason for this pattern was the dependence on the agrarian system. The dormant seasons on the Island coincided with the active seasons on the Mainland, thus, farmworkers were able to migrate back and forth to their advantage. The agrarian migration was mostly fostered by employers who usually came in the Island and hired farm workers. However, by 1947, in order to diminish the abuse of their employers, the Puerto Rican Legislature passed laws regulating the recruitment of farm workers and establishing the Office of Migration of the Commonwealth. This Office is centered in New York, investigates the working conditions and protects the migrant worker. It oversees that the recruitment of farm workers on the Island must be done under the form of a labor contract approved by the Department of Labor of Puerto Rico.
Student Activities
Useful resources:
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1. Handlin, Oscar,
The Newcomers,
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1959 .(especially good for comparative studies of immigrants).
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2. Mills, C. Wright.
The Puerto Rican
Journey,
New York, Russell and Russell, 1967.
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3. Rogler, Lloyd H.,
Migrant in
the City
, New York, Basic Books, 1972 (The study was made in New Haven.
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1. Compare migration patterns of Puerto Ricans with those of other immigrants.
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2. Discuss why it is natural for Puerto Ricans to enjoy a two-way migration system.
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3. Visit the Office of the Migratory Program in Hamden and invite a representative to your school.
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4. Trace your family tree to the point of immigration to the United States.
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5. Discuss why the majority of the upper and middle classes do not migrate to the United States, except for educational purposes.
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6. Given the size (3435 square miles), the population (3.3 million) and the state of the economy of Puerto Rico, discuss the possibility of a mass migration to the Mainland.
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7. Compare the population density of Puerto Rico to the Mainland’s.
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8. Discuss the following statement by Gordon Lewis (See above)
“Like all migrant minorities, they have been considered, once they have settled in New York, as the cause of metropolitan ills instead of merely the occasion for the full revelation of those ills.”
