THE calamity brought by Hurricane Maria to Puerto Rico in September led to predictions of an exodus. The island’s troubles have continued: 10% of Puerto Ricans still have no electricity and days ago power cuts in San Juan, the capital, left residents in and around the capital without power for days. The island’s government reckons that by the end of 2018, 200,000 people may have left for the mainland; surveys suggest that many of them will stay away for good.
This would be an acceleration of a trend. Since 2005, when Puerto Rico suffered an economic downturn, Puerto Ricans have been leaving for other parts of America. Between 2005 and 2013 Puerto Rico’s GDP per capita as a proportion of American GDP per capita fell from 59% to 52%. Over that same period, the island lost 5.5% of its population. Pew Research Centre estimates that nearly 500,000 people left over the past decade.
Before then, however, population flows from the island were viscous–although the economic incentives for leaving were high and the...Continue reading
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