OPPapers.com

Hispanic American Diversity

Hispanic American Diversity 1

Dominican American is an immigrant or descendant of immigrants from the Dominican Republic to the United States. There are approximately 1,200,000 Dominican Americans, both native and foreign born.
Since the early 1960’s, economic problems and political turmoil in the Dominican Republic have led to a vast migration of Dominicans to the U.S., mainly to east coast cities, particularly New York City, New York, (Washington Heights, Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx and Brooklyn). Americans have settled in these areas largely because of the already existing and growing Latino community found in these places, having come on the heels of a similar migration of Puerto Ricans. Dominican Americans are now one of the largest Hispanic groups in the United States, less numerous than the Mexican American majority and Puerto Ricans, and about even with Cuban Americans.
An overwhelming number of Dominican Americans are young first generation immigrants without a high school diploma. Many Dominican Americans also come from the rural countryside of the Dominican Republic. Many are poor, and have language barriers as well. Second generation Dominican Americans are significantly more educated, as reflected by their higher incomes and employment in professional or skilled occupations. Dominican Americans have college degrees, slightly below the national average, but significantly higher than U.S. born Mexicans and U.S born Puerto Ricans. This signals that Dominican Americans are progressing. Dominican Americans are statistically the poorest ethnic group in the United States.

Hispanic American Diversity 2

As soon as the Dominicans set foot in the U.S., many of them went right into business. Spanish is undoubtedly the first language of choice, especially for recent arrivals.
Dominican immigrants have a long way to go in the process of political empowerment, but signs of improvement are already visible. The U.S. House of...