Reintegration of Circulating Families in Southwestern Puerto Rico*
| Date | 01 June 1986 |
| Author | JUAN E. HERNANDEZ CRUZ |
| Published date | 01 June 1986 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1986.tb00793.x |
Reintegration
of
Circulating Fa
rn
ilies
in Southwestern Puerto
Rice*
JUAN E. HERNANDEZ CRUZ, PH.D.**
INTRODUCTION
Puerto Rican migration to the United States has been a more
or
less continuous process
since
19
17.
There has been a sharp rise in the outflow trends from the
1950’s
to the present,
while
a
rise of inflow trends with a consequent drop,
or
at least a steady movement
of
outflows,
is
now noticeable.‘)
This inflow has allowed the development of a new theoretical perspective2) which
stresses the material conditions of Puerto Rico and views the migration of the Puerto
Rican workers as
a
process
of
circulation linked to the mode of production, their condition
being
of
an industrial reserve army in search
of
connection to capital in exchange of labour
market.
The perspective of viewing return migration as a circulation process suggests that there
are entries, exists and reintegration into the metropolitan labour market.
Also,
there are
qualitative differences among the migrants, stressing the dynamics
of
demographic
changes in their relationship to the prevailing organization of social production.
The study of Puerto Rican migration has been undertaken, traditionally, within the
Malthusian framework and the assimilation theory. For researchers within this
perspective,’) the main cause of Puerto Rican migration is the disparity between
population growth and development in the sending country. However, in their analysis,
the conditions of underdevelopment is not tied to a particular mode of production which
may create and expand the gap between population and employment opportunities. For
most
of
them, the economic growth of a country is equal to the per capita income, and they
reason that migration is significant because it has the effect
of
reducing unemployment
figures. Essentially, the assimilation approach stresses the European ethnic model,
highlighting the ‘selective characteristics’ and ‘motivations for the move’ together with the
‘progress toward incorporation into United States society’. (Fitzpatrick,
197
1
;
Gordon,
1964
;
International Migration
Review,
1968).
*
Revised version of a paper presented at the Seventh Seminar
of
Adaptation and Integration
of
Migrants, Geneva, Switzerland. Information Document
No.
18,
Intergovernmental Committee for
Migration (ICM).
**
Associate Professor, Inter-American University
of
Puerto Rico, San German.
397
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