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From an economic point of view, the DR is basically a second Puerto Rico for Puerto Rican companies and investments. It is a country with a lot more people than PR, but the amount of people with a standard of living similar to the average Puerto Rican is about the same. The lower middle class does have a lower standard of living than in PR or any developed country though they aren't as poor as the poor are, but any business with products that are mass consumed it's an additional market of around 3 million more people.
The thing about the US Virgin Islands and basically the entire Lesser Antilles is one of size. The entire population of the US Virgin Islands is equivalent in size to three or four neighborhoods in Santo Domingo that are solidly middle class and up. Plus, there are many more like that not just in SD, but in several cities and towns in the interior. When you look at the Lesser Antilles overall it has a population of about 3 million people. Not all of these islands are very developed, so its 3 million people but with a very varied standard of living.
Now, think of this, Greater Santo Domingo has a population of around 3.5 to 4 million people and that's just one urban area of the country. The whole Cibao region, which is all of the north, has an additional population of about 3 million and has the most cities in the country and they tend to be larger than elsewhere except the SD area, in the east places like San Pedro, La Romana, and Higüey. The eastern region, which is a more feudal type of place compared to SD and Cibao regions which have a huge middle class cushioning the rich and the poor, the middle class is much smaller. People are more likely to be rich or poor and they amount to about 1.5 million, the least populated region and also the flatest part of the island. The rest (about 2 million) live in the southern region (everything west of SD is "The South" because the focal point from which each region is named is the Central Mountains, not SD as some erroneously think) but that is a considerably poorer region of the country. Even the towns tends to be smaller and "less active" than elsewhere. The only place that has a vibe similar to what is found say in the Cibao is Baní in what is a huge region.
Most of the middle class and up lives in the SD area and in the Cibao Valley. Its simply more people with a decent to high standard of living than the entire population of any island in the Lesser Antilles.
To give one hint. La Sirena is a Dominican equivalent to the Walmart types in the USA, though there are several Dominican chains. Since 1999, when the company administrators began to apply the "multicentro" concept, they have grown from just one store in SD to some 30 stores in SD and other cities and towns. They also have other chains targeting different market levels, but annual sales have grown to over US$700 million. Where in the Lesser Antilles can a company have sales to that tune and be a company that does all its business in the Lesser Antilles with no export to other markets/countries? There simply isn't one due to size. Regardless how well a company is managed and how developed an island may be, its growth potential is limited by the population size and the purchasing power where they do business. However, developing sales to that tune is possible in some islands if the Greater Antilles. There are companies in the DR that have annual sales above US$1 billion and these are companies that do almost all of their business in the country, with little to no export.
The same happens elsewhere in Latin America. You go to say Central Colombia or Central Mexico and other places, and it becomes very clear that the amount of people living a good standard of living isn't two or three. In fact, it's more than any place in the Caribbean. The size creates all sorts of business/professional opportunities.
Moving to DR from PR seems odd when Florida/USVI is right there. What are the reasons why a Puerto Rican (assuming no familial ties or anything to DR) would move to DR vs. the US?
Not all Americans/Puerto Ricans think USA is the best country on earth, the go-to country. Many people want to go out and explore the world and live in other places. Dominican Republic has a very similar culture and overall atmosphere to PR, has a growing economy, and a relatively low crime rate compared to most of the rest of Latin America. It also very close to Puerto Rico and the US eastcoast.
DR and PR always had close ties. Dominican Republic is appealing to some middle class Puerto Ricans, many own businesses and homes there. Even though, like 97% of the 9 million PRs live in Puerto Rico and the US mainland for obvious reasons, about 40,000 live in other countries, nearly half of that is in DR and the rest in numerous other countries in Latin America and Europe, in the case of DR most Boricuas probably blend in easily.
Don't get me wrong, poorer PRs leaving the island are 99.99% likely to go to the US mainland over anywhere else, especially if they are government dependent living in a caserío on welfare, or if they super Pro-USA statehood and think America is the center of the universe. Most Puerto Ricans living abroad are middle class or up, business oriented, and open minded to other cultures and environments. One of my childhood friends, an NYC Rican married a Dominican woman and they moved down to DR, they own land in Bonao.
Last edited by DRPRCubaSpain; 01-16-2022 at 09:38 PM..
Also keep in mind that many Puerto Rico may be in part descendants of Dominicans that flee to that island many centuries ago. Even if it's a part and if it has been forgotten (not in many families, some of which will tell you their family arrived in PR from Santo Domingo back in the late 1700's or early 1800's or during the Haitian Domination), many feel comfortable in many areas of the DR even if there are differences from PR. I personally think they are related in part to many Dominicans, distant cousins of sorts. That could very well be one of the reasons for this comfortable feeling many PR's feel in certain parts of the DR. Quite a few would mention a sort of dejavu feeling when they go to a certsin place in the DR, almost as if they have been there before despite it could be the first time they are in the DR.
Also, I like to add, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic always had population exchanges for centuries. Even in pre-Columbian times, Taino indians who lived in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, would frequently travel to neighboring islands. Then, during colonial periods people would move to neighboring colonies that were under the same European power. During the Spanish colonial era Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo were already majority TriRacial, there were population exchanges between the two.
And more recently (1800-present), when Dominican Republic had it's struggles for independence against Haiti there was population exchange particularly Dominicans to PR, and Puerto Rico had struggles against Spain during the 1860s and hosted battles for the Spanish American war, there were many Puerto Ricans moving to DR. Even in the early days of US rule up until as recent as the 1940s, many Puerto Ricans moved to DR because of the slightly better economy in DR, pre Operation bootstrap, many moved to work on the sugarcane bateyes with Cubans and Cocolos before it's became dominated by Haitians. Same reason PRs went to Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, sugarcane work. Many PRs married and intermixed with the local Dominicans, even blended in better than the Cocolos did and better than the haitians are trying to do now. Many Dominicans and Puerto Ricans have distant ancestry from the neighboring island. I'd imagine modern PR immigrants to DR would likely hold onto their Boricua identity alot more than past migrants who focused more on blending in completely with the locals, and vice versa modern day Dominicans in PR.
"While the effects of the Hollander Bill have not been measured exactly, the number of landless people in
Puerto Rico continued to increase under US colonial rule, to a degree that was exceptional in the
Hispanic Caribbean at the time. Puerto Rico had a constant surplus of laborers for the sugar harvest. This
stands in contrast with Cuba and the Dominican Republic, which had to import workers during the sugar
harvest every year.12 Those who are familiar with the present pattern of migration of workers to Puerto
Rico from the Dominican Republic may not remember that in the early decades of this century the flow
took place in the opposite direction. Puerto Rican workers moved to the Dominican Republic in search of
employment and better wages. In 1913, wages for agricultural workers in the sugar industry of Puerto
Rico averaged 47 cents a day. In Cuba they ranged from 92 cents in Pinar del Río to $1.17 in
Camagüey.13 In 1919, rural workers in Puerto Rico earned between $.75 and $1.00 for a 10 to 12 hour
day. In Cuba they earned $2.00 for a 9 hour day.14 In contrast to Puerto Rico, where there was an
abundance of “surplus” labor, “Cuba’s great problem is that of Labor supply.”15 Both the Dominican
Republic and Cuba lacked a landless rural population in proportions comparable to that of Puerto Rico.
The reasons for the disparity have to do with the greater population density of Puerto Rico, the previous
history of each island, and particularly, with direct US control of the state administration in the Puerto
Rican case. During the early decades of the century Puerto Rican workers migrated to the Dominican
Republic, to Cuba, to Arizona, and to Hawaii in search of employment.16"
Its not eye opening to meet Dominicans particularly in the Santo Domingo area and for them to say that part of their ancestry comes from Puerto Rico. It could be one grandmother or one great grandmother or grandfather. Not so common in the Cibao Valley, though there are cases. Of the well known Cibaeños, two comes to mind that had partial Puerto Rico ancestry.
One was Dr Joaquín Balaguer who published many books and was the president various times. He was from Navarete, close to Santiago, and his father was from Ponce, Puerto Rico. Of the many things named after him in the DR is the highway that connects Santiago to Navarete and there is a large fountain in the Parque Mirador del Sur in Santo Domingo. His home on avenida Máximo Gómez is now a museum about him. It was under renovation a few years ago, but now is open. Dedpite his influence and grandiosity, he was a simple man never interested in creating riches for himself. He could of died as one of the richest men in the Caribbean and instead hardly had much to his name or that he controlled at the time of his death. Case in point, the house where he lived until he died was given to him by Trujillo and yet, he lived in a very small part of the house. The rest was simply there taking up space.
The other one was Prof. Juan Bosch from La Vega. He also published many books, was president, and founded two of the three major political parties in the second half of the XX century and first decade and much of the second decade of the XXI century. His mother was from Puerto Rico but don't know which town. There are many highways, parks, etc named after him in the DR, the largest perhsps is the wide cable-stayed bridge parallel to the Juan Pablo Duarte Bridge over the Ozama River connecting Santo Domingo to Santo Domingo Este. That is the widest of such type of bridges in the Caribbean.
Another one of partial Puerto Rican descent that comes to mind, though he wasn't from the Cibao but instead from San Pedro de Macorís, is considered the greatest Dominican poet, Pedro Mir. His mother was from PR.
This Puerto Rican magazine has several articles (in Spaniah) of various influences of Puerto Rico in the Dominican Republic.
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