When you meet Puerto Ricans on the mainland US, do you think of them as immigrants? On a technical level, are they immigrants, since even though they are US citizens, Puerto Rico is not a part of the US?
I’m not sure if they are technically immigrants, but I don’t really think of Puerto Ricans as immigrants. Then again, I don’t really think of Mexicans as immigrants even though I know that they are. Perhaps it is just because more than half of my friends (and more than half of the people I interact with on a daily basis) are Hispanic.
Yeah, I know. That made no sense.
What do you mean, think of them as immigrants? Because upon thinking about your question, I never look at someone who is not white and think “immigrant”. It could be because I was one myself, I dunno.
Of course not. No more than are residents of any other U.S. Territory, such as the Virgin Islands, Guam, etc. Neither were Alaskans when we were a territory. They’re free to come and go from the mainland like any other citizen.
Though not a state, Puerto Rico most certainly is a part of the U.S. Puerto Ricans are not immigrants, except in the very narrow sense that anyone who has moved within the U.S. is an immigrant to their new place of residence.
I think of them as immigrants. Not from a state = immigrant in my mind. I would say the same thing about people from Guam or American Samoa for example. Every time I fly into San Juan I think, wow, I am in this foreign land that is part of the U.S. Puerto Ricans have a very strong “national identity” and they speak a foreign language even though it is a very common one in the U.S. Many also have anti-American attitudes. It is hard to think of them as regular Americans under such circimstances…
I mean exactly what the question says – do you consider Puerto Ricans living in the mainland US (or Alaska and Hawaii) as immigrants? I’m not sure what you mean about looking at someone who is not white and thinking “immigrant”…
Puerto Rico is, as I understand the relationship, owned by the US, but not part of it in the same sense as the 50 states. As you know, they can’t vote vote in US elections, nore are they taxed by the federal government (98% sure on the second part). And culturally as well it’s not quite part of the US – most Puerto Ricans I’ve ever known identify themselves first as Puerto Ricans, and second (if at all) as Americans. Also, they play in the Olympics under the Puerto Rican flag, not the US flag. With all that, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that moving from Puerto Rico to Arkansas is no different than moving from Delaware to New Jersey.
I’ll ammend my last post by adding that technically it may be no different – I don’t know, that’s one of my questions – but mentally it probably is, both in the minds of Puerto Ricans and Americans. That’s what I’m trying to guage, and why I put it in IMHO instead of GQ.
I’m not sure how I think of it personally – not quite immigrants, not quite not immigrants. Kind of like the limbo the place is in legally with relations to the US.
No I don’t consider them imagrants. Porto Rica is not owned by the USA. They are a territory that we help defend from hostile take over for the benefit of us both.
I knew quite a few Puerto Ricans when I lived in NYC, and not one of them had actually been born in Puerto Rico. Why should I think of them as immigrants?
Speaking as someone who has grown up in a city (New York) with a very sizeable population from Puerto Rico: yes, of course I think of them as immigrants, and don’t see how someone would not, at least for any practical purpose.
[ul]
[li]Their self-identity involves a place that is an island in the Caribbean, just like other immigrant groups such as the Dominicans (their arch-rivals) and Haitians.[/li][li]They speak Spanish as their native/home language.[/li][li]They have and proudly display a Puerto Rican flag, and have a Puerto Rican Day parade.[/li][li]They talk about “going back” (or if parents, “sending the kids back”) for summers.[/li][li]There are Puerto Rican “associations” meant to help newcomers acclimatize to their new surroundings.[/li][/ul]
In short they exhibit every attribute of what I would call an “immigrant community”. Just like any other immigrant group, there’s a sizeable and growing population of young people who still identify themselves as being “from PR” (or “Nuyorican” as a distinct mixture of New Yorker and Puerto Rican), reflecting their gradual assimilation. No part of that should surprise anyone.
Of course, I wonder about the tone/intent of the OP. What was meant by “thinking of them as immigrants”? About 3/4ths of the resident population of New York City is either an immigrant or first-generation descendant (including myself I should add, though not Puerto Rican), and much of the longer-tenured population native to the area has retained a strong sense of ethnic identity (e.g. 3rd- or 4th-generation Italians, Jews or Poles), so it’s not like thinking of them as “immigrant” means thinking of them as “strange” or “out of place” to me.
Frankly it’s the yuppies flooding into the city from other states of the USA that drive me nuts, pricing everyone out of Manhattan apartments and promoting the sproutings of Starbucks, GAPs, Home Depots and Banana Republics in place of regular ol’ delis and hardware stores… (commence grouchy grumbling)
Nope, just another ethnic group, albeit one that could fly home in three hours or so. No visa problems, no harrowing coyote stories, no worries about green cards or deportation and relatives getting murdered by Cossacks or something back home, and when I visited a friend’s hometown in college it looked like Texas. Plenty of teachers, politicians, veterans, cops, etc. of Puerto Rican descent, very mainstream group, mostly working-and middle-class by the time I was a kid.
But less assimilated then, like, Swedish-Americans or something; some had their own neighborhoods and stores and the older folks often didn’t have to learn English. Of course, now a lot of them have moved onto the suburbs, with people who are unarguably immigrants taking their places.
Except apparently in many international sports events.
I just meant that I don’t look at anybody and think “immigrant.” It all depends on where they self-identify. I’ve known plenty of citizens who bitch and moan and hate this country so much they don’t belong here, and lots of immigrants who love this country fiercely. As do I.
So, no, I don’t look at Puerto Ricans and think of them as immigrants. I wait until I see what they have to say.
How do you know a particular Puerto Rican, on sight, is actually from Puerto Rico or born here anyway?
Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, and may become a state one day. I don’t think of Puerto Ricans as “immigrants”, they are legally citizens.
But…assuming that means they were born in the US, then they’re not immigrants by any definition, no more so than Italian-Americans who’ve never been to Italy are really “Italian,” and no more so than I’m from Massachusetts just because my mom was raised there. I’m talking about people who were born and (more significantly) raised on the island, then move to the US.
I’m really, honestly not sure what tone or intent you’re attributing to my question. I’m not casting aspersions on anyone; just a straight-forward question. (It shouldn’t matter, but for what it’s worth, I lived with a Puerto Rican family for a while after graduating from high school.) I asked whether people “think” of them as immigrants because, since they’re already American citizens, I guess they’re technically not immigrants – but, of course, many Puerto Ricans coming to the mainland US go through the classic immigrant experience with regards to learning a new language, assimilation, etc. Ultimately, I suppose, I’m trying to find out how foreign most Americans view Puerto Rico as being.
I don’t really see what self-identity or patriotism has to do with it. (Well, with Puerto Rico maybe it would make a difference.) But, say, a Russian immigrant who loves America and attains US citizenship is still an immigrant. An immigrant and an American, yes, but still also an immigrant.
You can’t tell on sight where a Puerto Rican was born. Most people, on sight, can’t tell a Puerto Rican from a Dominican. Where did that come from?