Dominican Immigration To Puerto Rico - The Recent Period

The Recent Period

Dominican migration increased sharply after 1961 as a result of political events, of which the first was the assassination of Trujillo that year. Many politicians and other members of the conservative former regime, as well as government employees, left the country, many of them for Puerto Rico. The next major political event to drive emigration was the coup d'état against the elected, leftist president Juan Bosch in 1963. There followed the Dominican Civil War in 1965 after a revolt to restore Bosch. The United States invaded the Dominican Republic a few days into the conflict, and one of its policies was to prevent renewed civil war by issuing visas to opponents or potential opponents of the new, elected, conservative, US-backed regime of Joaquín Balaguer (who was, like Bosch, of Puerto Rican ancestry, incidentally). Many of the visaholders travelled to Puerto Rico.

Politics continued to play a role in emigration in succeeding decades, as presidential election years produced emigration peaks whenever Balaguer — a member of the former Trujillo regime — won the presidency, as happened in 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, and 1990. As a result, most of the Dominican emigration was middle class and skilled, including many managers and professionals.

Although there are substantial upper class and middle class segments in the Dominican Republic, the country also has a high poverty rate, so that since the 1970s economic reasons have rampantly driven emigration. Overall, between 1966 and 2002 119,000 Dominicans were legally admitted to Puerto Rico, while many thousands arrived illegally. Most emigrants, however, have been far from destitute, as they tend to be jobholders in the Dominican Republic, many in skilled occupations such as mechanic, mason, seamstress, and nurse. These migrants have been attracted by Puerto Rico's higher wages, which have generally tended to rise in relation to Dominican wages since the early 1980s, when an era of frequent devaluation of the Dominican peso began. Economic crises that beset the Dominican Republic in the 1980s further increased emigration. Despite strong economic growth, the 1990s marked the peak in Dominican emigration, due to high income inequality. Severe economic crisis hit in 2003-2004, again causing a surge in emigration.