This paper discusses some of the social science paradigms developed to explain the initial migration and adaptation of ethnic and racial groups in the United States and the applicability of these theories to the Puerto Rican experience. Migration within the United States has recently taken a bifurcated form with many Boricuas moving to Sunbelt destinations while others settle in mid-sized cities in the Northeast. To analyze the socioeconomic mobility of Puerto Ricans, the author examines the paradigms known as classic assimilation, underclass or culture of poverty, segmented assimilation, place stratification, and stratified ethnoracial incorporation. The model that best applies to the Puerto Rican experience is the racialized place inequality framework, as it takes into account both individual attributes and the residential mobility some Boricuas have attained in the most recent period while acknowledging a parallel racialization process in some destinations. © 2017, Hunter College Center for Puerto Rican Studies. All rights reserved.

Bifurcation World systems Migration income inequality spatial assimilation Residential segregation

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