Among the groups which have arrived in New York in large numbers in recent years are the American citizens of Puerto Rican origin. who now number between 400.000 and 500.000. Like all newcomers to our shores in the past. they are confronted with many serious and difficult problems. such as finding adequate housing. obtaining suitable employment. overcoming the language barrier. and their general assimilation into the community. It is primarily a problem of adjustment faced by so many other immigrant groups which preceded the Puerto Ricans and. as has been true in the past. they serve as a convenient scapegoat for local frustrations and incidents of oni sort or another. In an interim report of the Mayors Committee on Puerto Rican Affairs in New York City. submitted on November 16. 1953. it is stated as follows: Need for special coordinated effort (to help the Puerto Rican newcomers) arose from the fact that since the end of the war in 1945 there was a steadily increasing migration from Puerto Rico to the mainland. with almost all the migrants settling in New York City. Here. during the years just after the war. this migration was added to all the economic and social problems. worries. and concerns which are part of any postwar period. The new arrivals were forced to take the poorest jobs. while social and economic forces herded them into the worst slum areas. There followed. inevitably and ruthlessly. all of the insecurity. hardship. suffering and the social fears. tensions. and conflicts which are the result of poverty and slum life. As had happened again and again when waves of immigration and migration hit New York. all too often the new arrivals were looked on either with indifference or with open hostility. Mr. Speaker. a little over a year ago. in the spring of 1953.
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immigrant immigration migrants