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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2004)
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GET THE FACTS TELL YOUR FAMILY www.donorworld.com 1.800.355.7427 www.organ.org 1.800.788.8058 6A Wednesday, February 11, 2004 w <>Rll |E THE UATTALI) [HI Puerto Rican migration t( 8 mainland nears mileston Daly Morales, 21, is a student at the University of Puerto Rico's Bayamon Campus in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Shown on Jan. 22, 2004, Morales and her family will join a growing number of people leaving the Caribbean island for a life on the U.S. mainland. By Ray Quintanilla KRT CAMPUS SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— Daly Morales' goal for 2004 is written on her calendar: "Pack up the husband and baby" and leave the island where she was born for either Central Florida or New York. "I have to go where the money is," she said. Puerto Rico businesses don't offer the kind of money Morales can earn in places such as Orlando, Fla., or New York City, explained the University of Puerto Rico senior, who will graduate with a degree in electronics. Morales and her family will join a growing number of people leaving this Caribbean island, headed for a new life some where on the U.S. mainland. As early as this summer, that exodus wil) hit a milestone—the number of Puerto Ricans living on the mainland will surpass the number living in Puerto Rico. It's a historic turning point. The growth in Puerto Ricans liv ing in places like Central Florida and in pockets throughout the states is expected to foster debate on issues such as whether those on the mainland should have a formal voice in govern ing the island. And as natives of the island move to the mainland, they are frequently being replaced by immigrants from throughout the region. During the 1990s, Puerto Rico became a Caribbean melt ing pot. More than 140,000 people living in Puerto Rico identify themselves as coming from somewhere else in Latin America, mostly from the Dominican Republic, but also from Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and other places—a watershed for the island. "Change is raising new and complicated issues for the island," said Jorge Duany, a University of Puerto Rico anthropologist and a leading researcher on the island. "It will be interesting to see whether this closing of the gap brings both sides together or creates divide." The 2000 census set the island's population at 3.6 million, only about 200,000 more than the number of Puerto Ricans counted in the 50 states. Today, that gap has closed to within a few thou sand, and within months mainland Puerto Ricans will exceed those on the island. In the past 10 years, the equivalent of 8 percent of the island's population has moved to the mainland, mostly for eco nomic reasons. Because they are U.S. citi zens, Puerto Ricans face no immigration issues. And that has opened the door for natives of the island seeking a better life. Many of those making the move are professionals—physi cians, teachers, nurses and engi neers. In the 1990s, almost 40 percent of all doctors who grad uated from medical schools here moved to the mainland, Duany said. And there have been vigor ous recruiting efforts to lure teachers and nurses to fill short ages stateside. Migration out of Puerto Rico has been going on for decades. During the mid-20th century, Duany says, the island's eco nomic development strategy "expelled" a large number of islanders to cities throughout the United States. Many settled into the Northeast, lured by its big cities with already-iarge migrant populations and plentiful manu facturing jobs. One of the plan's architects, former Gov. Luis Munoz Marin, presided over the exodus of a half-million Puerto Ricans to the mainland. By the 1970s, thoi the trend had hit an equilibrii with as many returning to tlie island as were leaving. The latest wave of migration has been drawing away profeS' sionals as well as laborers,econ omists say. In a report to the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce this week, Jose Joaquin the organization’s past president, said the island's economy does n't produce enough high-paying jobs to retain professionals grad uating from the common wealth's universities. In this low-wage economy 70 percent of Puerto Ricans earn less than $25,000 annually, "The jobs for them are not on the island," said Villamil, presi dent of Estudios Tecnicos, a consulting Finn. The migration can cause shortages. For instance, though the i needs more nurses, about departed for the mainland, Felix V. Matos-Rodriguei, director of Centro de Estudios Puertoriquenos at Hunter College of the City Universityof New York, said the so-called "brain drain" has made it diffi cult to retain the island's best and brightest. Still, he said, "you hear sto ries all the time about people who come back to the island. As the Puerto Rican popula tion in the states surpasses that on the island, Matos-Rodriguez said all people of Puerto Ric descent should mark the mi stone with "quiet reflection. "It's a time to look at wt for those on the mainland a the island to consider ways bridge differences," Rodriguez said. 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