The migration rivals those from New Orleans to Houston after Hurricane Katrina and from Cuba to Miami during the Mariel boatlift according to the New York Times story on the “Great Migration“.
More than 168,000 people have flown or sailed out of Puerto Rico to Florida since the hurricane, landing at airports in Orlando, Miami and Tampa, and the port in Fort Lauderdale. Nearly half are arriving in Orlando, where they are tapping their networks of family and friends. An additional 100,000 are booked on flights to Orlando through Dec. 31, county officials said.
The Puerto Rican population of Orlando has exploded from 479,000 in 2000 to well over one million this year, according to the Pew Research Center. The impact of this latest wave is likely to stretch from schools and housing to the work force and even politics.
Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens and tilt Democratic, could sway the electoral results of one of the country’s most pivotal swing states.
Bilingual Strains, Housing Strains
Educators are worried about the impacts and pressures because the kids are largely Spanish speaking.
The area’s two county school districts — Orange and Osceola — have taken in 3,280 new Puerto Rican students since the hurricane, 70 percent of the Florida total, according to district officials.
City administrators are worried about the lack of affordable housing, a problem even before the hurricane migration.
Brain Drain
The New York Times article did not mention the impact on Puerto Rico. Those with money or talent are among those most likely to leave.
On September 29, Politico reported Puerto Rico’s Exodus Begins with a Trickle.
“I’ve heard an estimated 15,000 Puerto Ricans from the island will be in Central Florida by mid-October,” said Ney Rivera Garcia, a founding member of Orlando-based Puerto Rican Action Initiative.
We are now at 168,000 and counting.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Cecil and wildbull. Your comments insinuate that America either was or is only for this mythical white people. History shows that indigenous people inhabited, owned and governed the land by right well before it was invaded by illegal aliens (relative to the indigenous) called ‘white people’. Are we to ignore this fact to some how now suggest Europeans or ‘white people’ have sole claim to call the US theirs by right? Same thing in Europe too the original people of Europe were Asians. The Greek and roman wars pushed the Asians east into what is subsequently called east Asia.
You will be astonished at what you will see in the next few years. First the Confederate statues, then Columbus came down. Soon it will be Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Jackson. You read it here first.
Puerto Ricans are American citizens and have the right to be here. The fact that the Liberal jerks have failed to teach them English is not their fault, but is their and our problem.
cecil, the objective here is to destroy Western Civilization and the philosophy that brought us the Consitution and the Bill of Rights. When people emigrate to America to become Americans I’m all for it. I don’t care about race or country of origin. When they want to set up their own little colonies and maintain their former cultures it is invasion. This is just another tactic of the left to destroy our past in order to inflict Socialism on us in the future.
Africa for Africans, Asia for Asians, White countries for everyone IS White Genocide.
Its a crime, not a policy option.
Americans and Europeans have had their countries and their wallets and hearts forced into The Diversity Project only to find their countries broke, themselves marginalized and discriminated against, and their societies converted into alien places that they do not recognize. Diversity has failed.
fed secretly printing trillions and quietly funneling it to wall street ,banks,buyin stawks,bonds,oil,they could easily drop a trill on Rico as a down payment to start rebuilding that mess
Echoes of the refugee prooblems in the EU !!!
A US territory where English is not mandatory even as a second language? A brain drain indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-DzuCPmXU
Somebody please tell hank Johnson that Puerto Rico will not tip over if they go back.
I’m sure Orlando citizens are overjoyed to serve these vital contibutors.