Here is a link to a good article about why Puerto Ricans are leaving the island:

Plagued By Violence, Bad Economy, Puerto Rico Rings In 2014 With Bang; 13 Murders In 5 Days | Fox News Latino

I have absolutely NO problem with this. Many of my friends are Puerto Rican and I have always been I pressed with their family values Nd work ethics

I looked at the link ... how depressing.

Here's an excerpt that jumped out:

"Many economic experts worry that Puerto Rico could default on its debt, which in turn might engulf the island in even more crime as money and jobs become scarcer.

“Not only is there a debt problem, but there’s a deep structural problem,” Juan Carlos Hidalgo, a Latin America policy analyst at the Cato Institute told Fox News Latino in December. “Puerto Rico has one of the lowest labor participation rates in the world. Only about 40 percent of the working age population is in the labor force.”

The bigger question becomes ... how did PR evolve to this dysfunctional status? Another question is ... why do societies never seem to learn that the path to wealth is not thru state-focused dependence?

I wonder if we contributed to this as a result of the billions of dollars we send Puerto Rico each year?

That's why we would not officially make them a state

THEY HAVE CHOICES JUST LIKE ME.......choice this or that......

Those that welcome them with open arms would be advised to take spanish lessons because the large majority of them will refuse to learn english as did most of the Cubans and will insist that you speak their language. Try going down SW 8th street in Miami and talking english. Actually try going anywhere in Miami and trying to talk your native language.

[QUOTE=Shimpy;962407]Those that welcome them with open arms would be advised to take spanish lessons because the large majority of them will refuse to learn english as did most of the Cubans and will insist that you speak their language. Try going down SW 8th street in Miami and talking english. Actually try going anywhere in Miami and trying to talk your native language.[/

When it comes to language, I would guess that the south florida experience with spanish speaking immigrants is not much different than other areas of the country where non english speaking immigrants settled. A trip to various neighborhoods in New York during the last century would show that on the lower east side, Yiddish was mostly spoken, and of course in Little Italy it was Italian and in Chinatown it was a chinese dialect. Parts of the midwest had places where Polish was mostly spoken. It truly is part of the American experience. The children and grandchildren of those Cubans all speak english and they have built a thriving community with a culture that I enjoy. Their family values seem to be exactly the same as mine. They value family and education and believe in the American dream.

[quote=BarryRX;962442]I agree; this is the way it will go. The children will assimilate. It is a well documented fact that children learn a language with a different part of their brain than do adults, and that it is much more difficult for an adult to learn a second language than it is for a child. A lot of the animosity Americans have for foreigners coming here and "refusing" to learn English is due to a misunderstanding. It's just not that easy, and the older you are the harder it is.

I grew up mostly in New Mexico and although I am an Anglo I learned to cuss in Spanish before I could in English while in grade school. At the time the American Indians, Spanish-as they then liked to be called- and Anglos all got along pretty well although issues existed then which are somewhat exacerbated today. Many of the American Indians there were then and now are trilingual. My first wife and mother of my children is New Mexico Spanish and spoke Spanish in her home growing up. Her family is wonderful!

The first Puerto Ricans I met were in the Army and I cannot say they made a favorable impression on my for lots of reasons. Later in life when I spent a little time in Puerto Rico I found the people mostly kind and welcoming. I chuckled when several I encountered told me I could use a US postage stamp because they were a territory of the US.

One of my fraternity brothers in college was a Cuban youth leader who had been tortured by Castro but lived to escape Cuba. I met more Cubans when I worked in DC in the sixties, very smart, professional and hard working people. As most of us know the first Cubans to arrive were of the professional class, escaping Castro while the next bunch came from his prisons. That was when terrible crime engulfed Miami. My brother resided in Key Biscayne in a luxury high rise condo for several years. The first time I flew in to meet me he told me since I was coming in late we would not go out but would eat downstairs in the building's fine restaurant. He also told me we likely would be the only people speaking English in the place - and we were!

What I have found in life is that, as we all know, all English speakers are not alike and that similarly all Spanish speaking people are not alike. Consider England, the United States, South Africa, Australia, etc.; consider Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico.

Above all, no matter where they come from and what their native tongue, people are people; Some are good, some are bad; that is what I have found.

I LOVED this post. Thank you so much for sharing your story and showing us your unique perspective. I hope to meet you one day. You sound like someone I'd enjoy having a conversation with. :beer3:

This Pew Research Hispanic page has lots of good info.

Jobs seem to be the driving force in people leaving and coming to the mainland, mainly to FL now.

AUGUST 11, 2014
Puerto Rican Population Declines on Island, Grows on U.S. Mainland

"……...The Island’s Economic Crisis

The onset of an economic crisis in 2006 that weakened the already-listless Puerto Rican economy likely played a role in the island’s accelerated population decline. More recent migrants to the mainland have been found to be less educated than those who remain on the island and more likely to hold less skilled jobs (Mora, Davila and Rodriguez, 2014).

According to a 2012 report on the Puerto Rican economy by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, “Puerto Rico’s economic progress has stalled: the Island has been operating below its potential for some time and the competitiveness of the economy continues to deteriorate.” The report cited persistently high unemployment and a low labor force participation rate, as well as heavy reliance on transfer payments such as food stamps (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2012).

The island’s recent economic crisis was fueled both by the overall U.S. recession and factors unique to the island. These included an end to longstanding Puerto Rican government corporate tax breaks in 2006, which led to business shutdowns and public- and private-sector layoffs.

More recently, the three major ratings agencies downgraded Puerto Rico’s debt to junk status this year, citing its long history of economic weakness (New York Times, 2014). The island’s debt burden began to grow after government expenses began outstripping revenues in the late 1990s (Federal Reserve, 2012)……"

Puerto Rican Population Declines on Island, Grows on U.S. Mainland | Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project

Just out of shear curiosity .... would you care to document your source on this?????

Presumed by whom and based on what?????

Of course it is.