"certainly there's work to be had"
This is a concept that some here within this forum may not properly grasp. I state may, because that assertion is not meant to be all-inclusive, but at times it seems that some posters may be a little out of touch with daily life in other parts of the world aside from their proper living expanses.
There are some people that only strive to attain an honest day's work and be fairly compensated for that work in order to survive and attempt to provide for their families. The media, both broadcast and social, has been inundated for several months with reports that Puerto Rico was destroyed; needs to be rebuilt; lacks the required skilled workers to get this work done; and so on and so forth. If you were a laborer of any sorts or means, do not possess the employment opportunities here within the RD or lack the basic resources to survive here, why would you not attempt the journey to a place where "there's work to be had"?
Aside from the treacherous, sometimes fatal journey across the Mona Passage, interdiction by immigration authorities, the unknown of being away from one's home, and the preoccupation of being sent back to RD at any time, some are willing to take on the challenge if it means finding compensated employment.....of any kind, for however little or long a period of time. Whatever may happen after, will happen after. Is the reward worth the risk? Is the risk worth the reward? That is up to the respective individual.
There is a large Dominican community within Puerto Rico. They did not have the same opportunities to fly or sail off to Miami, Orlando or Nueba Yol in the preceding months. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to believe that those there on the island are calling their friends and/or relatives here in RD to take the perilous trip if circumstances within their respective lives may dictate that course of action.
