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My job allows me to work from home. My job will also require that I do extensive travel throughout the caribbean. I live in south FL....pretty convenient to the caribbean. My thought process was that PR would be even more convenient. Trust me when I say I'm not enamored by sunshine, palm trees and 80 degree winters. I alreay have that living in south FL.
I was more interested in hearing about cultural differences, acceptance, etc. We know that pricans aren't immigrants, however PR language and culture is different than mainland US, so Pricans can be lumped in with other immigrant groups from the caribbean and latin america.
Well then! In that case, you're one step ahead of most Americans that want to live in PR. My family know people that live in Miami and it's not terribly different from PR, aside from language.
In that case, setting up shop in PR would be ideal. There are a lot of low cost flights flying out of SJU throughout the Caribbean. Seems like you need to be as close to the airport as possible? Look into renting in Isla Verde, Carolina. The airport is right next to it, lots of condos available for rent and most or all are controlled access. You have a smattering of people from all over in Isla Verde, from the mainland to France to the Netherlands (how many of the Dutch and French are from their nearby Caribbean territories I haven't a clue). Oh, and of course, the Europeans you're most likely to run into are the Spanish
What exactly do you seek out of living in PR that you cannot attain by living in the mainland? Serious question. As a Puerto Rican who took the first airline ticket out of that sinking ship the second I graduated high school, I struggle to find a single driving pragmatic reason I would uproot the economic access I have in the mainland in order to plant myself in a Caribbean island replete with unemployment and systemic brain drain (yours truly in the latter group). If you're getting your life advice out of what you perceive American territories' lifestyle to be, from the purview of a Kenny Chesney music video, you're in for an expensive life lesson. The Caribbean is great place to visit, but it is not endemic to prospering as a young head of household; certainly not to the tune of what a nobody's kid can attain in the CONUS. You don't need to permanently reside on the beach and pay that sunshine tax just to have access to a beach, you know. Do you not notice the overwhelming swath of Puerto Rican immigrants in South and Central Florida? Do you ask them why they're up here and not down there? Food for thought. Good luck to you.
Well not to be argumentative I cannot speak for anyone else yet I should like to respond and say that each person lives a different life. I see your points very easily because for all of my 52 years of living in the USA I bought into the American dream hook, line and sinker as we say. I mean I really breathed love and respect for my country and truly believed the TOTAL B_LL$H_T that my country and government fed me first in school and then in the so-called capitalist marketplace. All lies, I woke up at 40ish, tired, frustrated and then being told that the Social Security that I had been paying since I was 16 years old from my first job off the farm would not be available to me until I was 67 and I should be so glad to work for 2 extra years. Then at 50ish I was told that HEY! maybe because I worked for a living and has some saving etc. that I don't deserve any Social Security when I am 67.. maybe 70. In fact I should be grateful to pay 50% of my income in federal, state, local taxes combined and hey ... maybe I am not paying my fair share.. maybe 50% is not enough! All this while 51% of Americans, and that includes American territories especially, get a government check every month in some capacity... Why? To buy their votes, that's why. My only child is an adult and my ex and i split to new lives and I wish her every possible happiness. So I don't have to wear that 'head of household yoke' that you do. I sold everything had in the USA and moved to South America with two suitcases and a steamer trunk. I quit the American Cronyism BS Treadmill and my concerns are four pieces of fresh tropical fruit every day, no stress, a tan 365 days a year, women who actually like men rather than villify them and some cold beers and good rum a few times a month. So lest you think that I am angry... I was but it only took a few months in South America far away from the USA BS Machine to realize that my life is getting shorter every day and I want to be happy the remaining 20 I got left. So I got over it and part of that love that I regained from life was learning to love my fruit and my new life. You literally could not pay me to move back to the USA, not even a full ride on a government check.
I intend on spending some time, cheap time, in PR and trying to enjoy my fruit in the morning with my cafe con leche, some fresh avocado for lunch and maybe a walk on the beach or a bicycle ride. The roads are pretty good in PR and all the taxpayer created infrastructure so I intend on using it while I am there. Rock on folks and remember that it's your life, your happiness, your responsibility. They have not yet finished the building gulags in the USA so you still got time to make a break for freedom somewhere else. It's a matter of perspective isn't it?
Technically or juridically Puerto Ricans are not immigrants but once they leave the island and arrive on the mainland they function like immigrants. They stick to their own , congregate in areas, (ghettos) continue to speak Spanish until the next two or three generations assimilate into English.
For one reason or another, Puerto Rican professionals on the average don't do well in the states unless their English is flawless and they look White. This last term is tricky, because you might look white in Puerto rico but once you leave your whiteness is questionable on the mainland. That's why most stay in their ghetto, (Orlando) working with Spanish speaking Ricans or immigrants. Strangely their kids gravitate and become something like Nuyoricans, eventually dropping out of school and dropping down from the middle class where they came from.
If you're used to living in SF, you won't have a problem adapting. My father was born in New York but raised me in PR. He currently works at Miami while I work/study in Puerto Rico. I would not recommend living here unless you're financially prepared for dramatic changes such as higher utility bills, hectic driving and getting used to speaking Spanish.
Lets talk about jobs, many americans who move to PR usually have a job lined up. I don't intend to make it sound bad but the job market here is really tough.
Social acceptance is average here. Many will call you a gringo but don't take it as something rude. Thats the common word used to identify outsiders. Most of the people are welcoming since they are used to seeing many tourists around the island, especially in San Juan.
I say go to anyone who wants to come to Puerto Rico. It is an exciting vibrant place of tremendous beauty and variety. If you move from the States (many people do) you will find it both familiar and exotic and challenging. You will know you are in the US but with an added cultural benefit. For the most part people are more accepting of others than in the mainland and kinder. Racial tension, for example is almost non-existant, because we are of all colours and combinations here.
The weather is some of the best found on the planet, and this has economic benefits like no need to heat (or even a/c in many places).
Prices on most things are comparable or sometimes even less like for medical and government services. I know of a poor Anglo from Florida given a free house by the PR govt services.
Of course not knowing Spanish would be detrimental. Though English is common in PR, Spanish is still the principal language.
Most of the posts give good advice. If your heart tells you that our beautiful island calls you, you have to try.
One thing about name-calling. I hear mainlanders calling themselves exclusively "American". Wrong in many ways. All locals here are citizens too, and it becomes offensive to classify them differently. Of course all people living in the two continents are American too, but that's another issue.
"Gringo" is no more acceptable than "****" and should not be encouraged. Most educated decent people do not use such terms. It is easier to refer to one as Anglo or Hispanic which is not about race or nationality but about language and culture. Older Puerto Ricans used to refer to Mainlanders as "Continentals"--a good term out of use generally.
Another point centres around crime and poverty which is totally misunderstood. We compare favourably to most any state with beautiful clean modern towns of happy decent people.
You as Anglo are welcome here, as compared to Hawaii where local people commonly want "Yankee go home!"
Hope that adds a bit more to understand ing.
Technically or juridically Puerto Ricans are not immigrants but once they leave the island and arrive on the mainland they function like immigrants. They stick to their own , congregate in areas, (ghettos) continue to speak Spanish until the next two or three generations assimilate into English.
For one reason or another, Puerto Rican professionals on the average don't do well in the states unless their English is flawless and they look White. This last term is tricky, because you might look white in Puerto rico but once you leave your whiteness is questionable on the mainland. That's why most stay in their ghetto, (Orlando) working with Spanish speaking Ricans or immigrants. Strangely their kids gravitate and become something like Nuyoricans, eventually dropping out of school and dropping down from the middle class where they came from.
Not entirely true. Well, at least not for me nor for anyone I know that had moved recently. What you mentioned might had been the case until the mid 80's.
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