Class Backgrounds, Modes of Incorporation, and Puerto Ricans' Pathways Into the Transnational Professional Workforce

Abstract

Patterns of labor market incorporation of two samples of middle-class Puerto Ricans (U.S. migrants and return migrants to the Island) are examined in this article. Particular attention is paid to the diverse class backgrounds of Puerto Rican professionals and how these backgrounds (and how they structure migration options) impact educational attainment. The author also examines the resources and opportunities garnered through U.S. citizenship, specifically among those from working-class/poor backgrounds who are more likely to be structurally constrained in their efforts to achieve social mobility. The author further analyzes the direct and indirect impact of these factors on Puerto Ricans' incorporation into mainland and Island labor markets and their entry into the transnational professional workforce.

The Ghetto: contemporary global issues and controversies

“…New York has witnessed the arrival of many groups from Latin America and the Caribbean (Aranda 2008;Bourgois 2003;Dávila 2004;Fuentes 2007; Grasmuck and Pessar 1991;Jones-Correa 1998;Kasinitz, Mollenkopf, and Waters 2004;Kasinitz, Mollenkopf, Waters, and Holdaway 2008;Loveman and Muniz 2007;Marwell 2007). If we take a close look at the realities of Latino neighborhoods in the New York City metropolitan area, a more complex image of changing composition emerges-one that is relevant here because in many ways Latinos in New York City offer a closer comparison than African Americans to North Africans in Paris (Castañeda 2010;Wacquant 2008).…”