1965-1985: TWO-WAY MIGRATION

By 1970, 80 percent of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. live in just three states: New York, New Jersey and Illinois. When they undergo economic restructuring, Puerto Ricans are pushed out of manufacturing and service jobs where they are principally employed. Facing declining jobs opportunities, stagnant economies, and deteriorating living conditions, Puerto Ricans return to the Island.

Now discarded by the companies and employers that so aggressively sought their labor in the past, more Puerto Ricans return to Puerto Rico than come to the U.S. From 1975 through 1980, about 137,000 Puerto Ricans return to the Island. By the year 2000, more than six percent of Puerto Rico's population is U.S. born.