March 22, 2018, 6-8pm
Skylight Room, 9^th Floor

SPONSORED MIGRATION: THE STATE AND PUERTO RICAN POSTWAR MIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES

A book talk and discussion with:

Dr. Edgardo Meléndez, author , Professor of Africana and Puerto Rican/ Latino Studies, Hunter College

Dr. Teresita Levy, Associate Professor, Latin American, Latino, and Puerto Rican Studies, Lehman College

Dr. Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Research Associate, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College

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Sponsored Migration places Puerto Rico’s migration policy in its historical context, examining the central role the Puerto Rican government played in encouraging and organizing migration during the postwar period. Meléndez sheds an important new light on the many ways in which the government intervened in the movement of its people: attempting to provide labor to U.S. agriculture, incorporating migrants into places like New York City, seeking to expand the island’s air transportation infrastructure, and even promoting migration in the public school system.

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Edgardo Meléndez is Full Professor at the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College. Among his publications are: Puerto Rican Government and Politics: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000) awarded the 2000 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine; Partidos, política pública y status en Puerto Rico (Ediciones Nueva Aurora, 1998); Puerto Rico en “Patria” (Editorial Edil, 1996); Movimiento anexionista en Puerto Rico (University of Puerto Rico Press, 1993); and Puerto Rico’s Statehood Movement (Greenwood Press, 1988). He is coeditor with Edwin Meléndez of Colonial Dilemma: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Puerto Rico (South End Press, 1993); and coeditor of the special issue of Centro Journal “US Citizenship in Puerto Rico: One Hundred Years After the Jones Act” (Spring 2017). His latest book is Sponsored Migration: The State and Puerto Rican Postwar Migration to the United States (The Ohio State University Press, 2017). He is currently working on issues related to Puerto Rican migration, political incorporation, and citizenship. He has also published in several academic journals.