Search

This paper examines Puerto Rican/Hispanic political participation in Osceola County, Florida, focusing on the attitudes Puerto Ricans/Hispanics bring to the process, the general features of their participation, and the conditions in which they register, vote, and run for office. The paper offers a theoretical characterization of Puerto Rican/Hispanic political participation that includes the elements of racialization, inequality, reliance on external resources, and a type of identity politics that mixes elements of minority and white political behavior. The paper suggests that, so long as Puerto Ricans/Hispanics continue to face socioeconomic and political inequality while simultaneously enjoying discrete opportunities to choose between Puerto Rican/Hispanic candidates, their political behavior will be both minority and white; minority to the extent it focuses on descriptive representation and white to the extent it takes descriptive representation for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of Puerto Rican first- and second-generation youth's migration, identity and adaptation to new lives in the Orlando, Florida, metropolitan area. This qualitative study draws on participant observations, informal conversations, newspaper articles and reports, focus groups and individual interviews with thirty adults and twenty first- and second-generation youth to describe the experiences of these Puerto Rican youth. In the paper I argue that these youth's challenges of identity and incorporation are no different from many of the first- and second-generation youth migrating from other countries. The data show that language barriers, accommodations to home, community, and school, and cultural challenges do exist among first- and second- generation Puerto Rican youth. Yet these youth indicated high levels of academic achievement and social adaptation, and overall felt supported by their families, community and school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past two decades, Puerto Ricans have been moving to central Florida in large numbers in search of better opportunities. While there is some evidence that Puerto Ricans in central Florida enjoy higher levels of education than Puerto Ricans living in traditional settlement hubs, it remains unclear if these population shifts have also translated into health benefits. The first goal of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the literature on the health of Puerto Ricans in the United States. The literature shows that Puerto Ricans continue to experience worse health outcomes than other groups. The second goal is to establish a recent profile of Puerto Rican health in the U.S. and Florida. By using recently released data from the 2007 American Community Survey, we compared disability rates of Puerto Ricans across 72 counties with large Puerto Rican populations. Our results indicate that Puerto Ricans in Florida have a health advantage over many Puerto Ricans living elsewhere in the U.S. We conclude by discussing some of the social scientific implications of this study and by making some recommendations for future research in this highly understudied area of Puerto Rican disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive migration of Puerto Ricans from traditional settlement hubs in the Northeast to emerging gateways like Central Florida raises a number of questions that are explored in this paper. First, which counties have experienced the largest growth in the Puerto Rican population between 2000 and 2006? Second, are Puerto Ricans living in Central Florida doing better in terms of wages and other social characteristics than Puerto Ricans living in other U.S. counties? Third, do county and individual-level variables explain the effect that living in Central Florida has on wages? Data from the 2000 Census and the 2006 American Community Survey show that Central Florida counties have experienced some of the highest growth in the Puerto Rican population, that Puerto Ricans living in Central Florida are not enjoying the highest wages, and that both county level factors and human capital variables explain the Central Florida wage disadvantage. Puerto Ricans receive higher wages in counties with larger Puerto Rican populations, with relatively low levels of concentrated disadvantage, and in counties with an abundance of good jobs in the financial and business sectors. In addition, Puerto Rican workers benefit economically from living in counties with relatively low levels of residential isolation from whites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]