Dominican immigration to Puerto Rico
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (68,036 1.8% of Puerto Rico's population (2010)) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| San Juan, Carolina, Bayamón | |
| Languages | |
| Dominican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, English | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, predominantly Catholic |
Dominican immigration to Puerto Rico dates back to the beginning of European colonization of the Americas. Immigrants have moved from the territory of the Dominican Republic to its eastern neighbor, Puerto Rico, and vice versa for centuries. Dominican immigrants have come from various segments of Dominican society, with varying levels of contribution at different times. Although the end goal of most of these immigrants is the United States, tens of thousands have remained in Puerto Rico.
In recent years, the rate of Dominican immigration has declined due to the unemployment and economic crisis in Puerto Rico, and there's been increasing immigration in the opposite direction, from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic.Haitian nationals now make the majority of persons trying to reach the commonwealth nation from the island of Hispaniola, usually with the aid of Dominican smugglers.
Many residents of colonial Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic, left for Puerto Rico as a consequence of the cession of Santo Domingo to France in 1795, the Haitian invasions from 1801-1803 and later occupation from 1822-1844. Immigration continued over the next 86 years, although at a comparatively low rate.
The dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo between 1930 and 1961, greatly constrained foreign travel by Dominicans. In 1960 there were 1,812 Dominicans in Puerto Rico, some of whom were the 'returning' descendants of Puerto Ricans who had themselves migrated to the Dominican Republic.
Dominican migration increased sharply after 1961 as a result of political events, of which the first was the assassination of Trujillo that year. Many politicians and other members of the conservative former regime, as well as government employees, left the country, many of them for Puerto Rico. The next major political event to drive emigration was the coup d'état against the elected, leftist president Juan Bosch in 1963. There followed the Dominican Civil War in 1965 after a revolt to restore Bosch. The United States invaded the Dominican Republic a few days into the conflict, and one of its policies was to prevent renewed civil war by issuing visas to opponents or potential opponents of the new, elected, conservative, US-backed regime of Joaquín Balaguer (who was, like Bosch, of Puerto Rican ancestry, incidentally). Many of the visaholders travelled to Puerto Rico.
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