Comment on Puerto Ricans flock to U.S. mainland as island’s political and economic crisis worsens

Agence France-Presse, The Raw Story
Sat, 08/23/2014 - 2:09am

Puerto Ricans flock to U.S. mainland as island’s political and economic crisis worsens

The island of Puerto Rico is depopulating, as residents stream to the US mainland fleeing the island’s economic crisis and political gridlock in search of jobs. Since 2009, more Puerto Ricans have been living pn the American mainland than on the northeastern Caribbean US-territory, a trend that has accelerated in the years since, according to census figures complied by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center. In 2012, some 4.9 million Puerto Ricans lived in one of the 50 US states or the US capital, while the island had a population of 3.5 million, according to the study out this week. Furthermore, Puerto Rico lost another 144,000 people between 2010 and 2013. “We are seeing the biggest outmigration from Puerto Rico to the US that we’ve seen since at least the 1950s,” during the US economic boom, said study author Mark Hugo Lopez. “It looks like the island is on a long run cycle of population decline.” - Unprecedented population drop - The United States seized Puerto Rico from Spain in a 1898 war. Residents of the Caribbean island are US citizens, serve in the military and have US passports, but cannot vote in US presidential elections. The self-governing territory’s sole representative in the US Congress is a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives.

 

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