By GEORGETT ROBERTS
June 5, 2008
NUYORICANS ARE MOVING ON UP - out of the city and into the suburbs!
As these first- and second-generation Puerto Ricans have become better educated and started earning more money, they've begun to branch out of the neighborhoods where their parents settled.
Suburbs in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, as well as in New Jersey and Connecticut, are the primary destinations for this generation, according to a new study.
"It seems like there's a pattern of suburbanization and upward mobility for a portion of the Puerto Rican population that is leaving New York City," says Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños' Research Assistant Andrew Luecke.
He's the co-author, with Dr. Andres Torres, Centro's interim director, and Bronx Community College's Dr. Gilbert Marzan, of a soon-to-be-released Centro Policy Brief.
"If you look at the numbers, you'll see Puerto Ricans who are leaving New York City are doing slightly better financially than those who are staying," Luecke continues, referring to data from the "Puerto Rican Outmigration from New York City: 1995-2000" study.
"Puerto Rican out-migrants have made about $6,000 more per year than those who stayed. Many of these movers are keeping their jobs in New York City and commuting in."
Centro Study found these characteristics among the Nuyoricans studied: "Middle-aged; not born in Puerto Rico; higher education and income levels; greater English fluency; married household; high proportion of professional/managerial occupations; generally in the labor force."
Even though many local Puerto Ricans are moving out of the city to different states, or back to the island, most prefer to stay in the suburbs rather than leaving New York state completely.
Twenty-six percent left for the suburbs while 20 percent moved to Florida, 19 percent to Puerto Rico, and 17 percent to all other states.
MOVING ON –
26% of mobile Nuyoricans move to the 'burbs. Others relocate to: Florida (20%), Puerto Rico (19%), New England (8%), Pennsylvania (6%), Other states (17%).
Important dates: Know your Puerto Rican History:
1898: United States invades Puerto Rico after Spanish American War.
1917: Jones Act is enacted granting US citizenship to Puerto Ricans. PRs are eligible for the draft and the first soldiers go to war.
1952: PR becomes a commonwealth, neither a state nor a nation.
