Cause and Effect Essay on Puerto Ricans In the United States: A Post-Colonial Migration

Introduction

The migration and immigration process of Puerto Ricans to the United States of America developed over the centuries with the first immigrant group having to enter the US in the early 19th century. Throughout this time Puerto Rico was a Spanish jurisdiction; as a result, the Puerto Ricans gained identification as Spanish residents. Several groups of Puerto Ricans flooded the United States America especially in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago. The Puerto Ricans identified better life Central Florida area which offered them many survival opportunities, among other essential aspects was affordable housing, decent employment opportunities, and more adequate social facilities.

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Causes

Even as early as the early eighteenth century, Puerto Rico population acquired characterization by poverty and high unemployment rates. The factors that attracted this second wave included the affordability of air travel as well as the boom in industrialization in the USA. The main reason why most Puerto Rican immigrated was to get a better chance in life in regards to economic opportunities highly available. This era also allowed for Puerto Rican to travel in the USA as citizens, but from a foreign country, this, therefore, required them to get passports when moving to the mainland.

Some of the problems that Puerto Ricans encountered in the US include; cultural differences, socio and economic contests. These comprised of discrimination, communication problem and unemployment. The late eighteenth century saw the decline of Puerto Ricans from the USA population. It was as a result of deindustrialization. The Puerto Rican community started to increase again in the early nineteenth century. Current reports show that in New York, Puerto Ricans make up about 8.9 percent of the population. The total number of Puerto Ricans in New York fall in over a million with seventy percent of this number living in the city and the remaining thirty percent distributed in the suburbs and other towns. Current migration of Puerto Ricans to New York and New Jersey has attained fueling by economic and cultural factors (Grosfoguel, 2003).

In 1900, a Foraker act passed by the Legislative where the US controlled civilian government was established on the Island. In 1917; the Jones act was moved to make Puerto Ricans American citizens in every aspect. The citizenship, as well as the economic boom realized as an effect of war, attracted thousands of Puerto Ricans into moving to the USA. Most of these people were able to garner work in the skilled sector as well as well as in service sectors.

The involvement of Puerto Rican in the USA was significant with people such as Jesus Colon being famous for his activism. In his efforts and struggles, he was known to dislike the conditions that the Puerto Rican lived in in the USA and found the requirements to be poor. Most of the jobs realized by these citizens were only low-class jobs such as factory jobs, kitchen and other places. The youths who had migrated in the 1920s encountered the enormous labor struggle era. In this period the jobs that they acquired were as dock workers, agricultural laborers, and artisans such as carpentry and shoemaking. Some of the significant challenges they faced during this period were violent repressions from both their employers as well as their island government. Employee and employer conflicts met triggering by the fact that the Islands economy was changing due to the buying of substantial agricultural lands by the USA to be turned into more profitable ventures. It led to protests by socialists and workers in the early 1920s.

Effects

With the migration of the Puerto Ricans, they proved a significant level of effects to the political setting, economic, and the entire US society as a whole. The Great Depression arrived at a time when the Puerto Ricans were the fastest growing immigrant group in the USA. It meant that this group was the one that was most affected by the great depression. The depression brought about inter-ethnic hostilities in the job market as well as racial prejudice (Duany, 147-172). There was a significant concern circulating on the low status that Puerto Ricans were about to dive in primarily due to inherent racism that excluded them from social activities.

Even with the National Industrial Recovery Act passage and unions growing popular, Puerto Ricans were still mostly left out of mainstream labor organizations. There were several unsuccessful efforts by the Puerto Ricans to make Spanish-speaking unions in the 1930s. When the New Deals were put in place to resurrect the dwindling economy after the Great Depression, politicians saw the benefits of involving Puerto Ricans at the local level. The various unions and groups developed by Puerto Ricans in New York at this time included employee's unions, hometown clubs and much other community defense groups that served to meet their unmet needs (Acosta-Belen, 2006). Politicians seeking an ethnic strategy focused on these groups and advocated for the population to consider convincing political bosses to involve racial voting bloc who would benefit them since they would be able to present their needs and cases. Thus, affected the US politics.

The reform movement in the 1930s led to the reduction of powers for the local politicians as well as the inclusion of Puerto Ricans. The inclusion, however, did little to stop the growing agitation for independence in Puerto Rico. Several incidents of high political violence occurred on the island which further led to Puerto Ricans need for freedom. Migrants were in the front line asking that the US ends its colonization on Puerto Rico. Some of these migrants did not restrain from accusing the new deal liberals as being part of the imperialist's scheme of developing policies that affected the Island instead of benefiting it. By the end of the decade of the 1930s, most immigrants in the USA had gone back to Puerto Rico. Those that were left behind decided to act by appointing Vito Marcantonio to represent East Harlem in Congress. Marcantonio was a Puerto Rican stalwart advocate. Many other Puerto Rican activists became more vocal and focused their demands on the state requiring that their acquired citizenship helped them benefit from local rights as island sovereignty.

This politically heated moment led to Puerto Ricans seeking higher political empowerment in New York but gained none with the only one Puerto Rican remaining in political position. Puerto Ricans were not elected to public post until the era of Mayor Robert Wagner. Most citizens and officials of the US were not in terms and did not support the improvement of Puerto Rican lives regarding housing, education, employment, and healthcare. The low voter registration rates for Puerto Ricans were highly blamed on the English-literacy test rather than apathy which was a common misconception. Puerto Rican leaders also accused the state legislature of ensuring that in districts that Puerto Ricans were many, only one region gained voting into office.

Works Cited

Acosta-Belen, Edna, and Carlos Enrique Santiago. Puerto Ricans in the United States: A contemporary portrait. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006

Duany, Jorge. "Reconstructing racial identity: Ethnicity, color, and class among Dominicans in the United States and Puerto Rico." Latin American Perspectives 25.3 (1998): 147-172.

Grosfoguel, Ramon. Colonial subjects: Puerto Ricans in a global perspective. Univ of California Press, 2003.