Migration, Political Capital, and the Puerto Rican Transnational Middle-Class.

In this paper I examine patterns of labor market incorporation of two samples of middle-class Puerto Ricans that include Puerto Ricans who migrated and settled in the mainland U.S. and those who returned to settle in Puerto Rico. Findings illustrate that Puerto Ricans' social class origins impact the conditions under which they move the United States. For those from middle or upper- middle class families, educating themselves in the U.S. was often a product of the intergenerational transmission of class. For all Puerto Ricans, particularly those from working-class or poor backgrounds, their political mode of incorporation resulted in political capital, or advantages garnered through U.S. citizenship (e.g. student loans, scholarships; affirmative action policies). This political capital facilitates not just migration to the mainland, but more broadly, access to educational and occupational opportunities that pave the way for the entry of Puerto Ricans into a transnational middle-class. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]