According to Pew, one of the drivers of this trend may have been the Great Recession.
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A majority of the 1 million who left the USA for Mexico between 2009 and 2014 left of their own accord, according to the Mexican governments survey data. During the same five years, 870,000 Mexicans came to the USA, resulting in a net flow to Mexico of 140,000. Of the 1,000 Mexicans who Pew interviewed in a 2015 survey, 33 percent believed life in the US was no better than life in Mexico-up from just 23 percent in 2007. Another reason, Pew said, is the USA economy isn’t as attractive to migrants than it was in previous decades.
“We know that crossings are definitely down and we also know it is much more hard and costly to cross now than it used to be”, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, author of the report, said.
Another factor that may be discouraging northern migration is tougher enforcement of immigration laws at the border and inside the U.S.
The decline in the flow of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. is due to several reasons, the report said. “People are pouring into our country”. But here’s the clincher: By 2065, Pew projects that there will be 441 million people living in the United States, and an astonishing 88% of that growth will be attributed to future immigrants and their offspring.
The Mexican population there peaked in 2007 at 12.8 million, falling to 11.7 million a year ago as new arrivals dropped sharply. But on the flip side, the director of Hispanic research at the Pew Research Center says Mexico’s improving economy encourages people to stay put. They support immigration reform with a path to citizenship and agree with Obama’s recent executive actions to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
So why are they leaving?
The full report is available from Pew Research Centre. FNL also reports that this study follows a 2012 Pew study that found that net migration between the US and Mexico was at zero. “We are not advocating for any policy change”. Seeking a way to earn money, children and adults younger than 30 made up 50 percent of immigrants into the USA from Mexico in 1990, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and its American Community Survey. Fewer jobs and less financial opportunity may have discouraged immigrants from arriving or motivated those already here to leave.
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The Trump-led GOP war on illegal immigration may be ideologically powerful politics in winning over Republican voters, but it is ideology based on a false premise.
