Between 2009 and 2014, 1 million Mexican immigrants and U.S.-Mexican citizens left the US for Mexico while 870,000 citizens from the Central American country migrated north-bound during this same period, the Pew Research Center found.
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But since the recession, that Mexico-to-U.S. flow has weakened significantly, and more migrants have been returning to Mexico than arriving in the US, a new Pew analysis finds. But, the lingering recession impact on employment has created a change in the flow coming from the south. Mexico is the birth country for the largest number of foreign-born people in the U.S. But, the flow across the Mexico border has shifted and now more Mexican nationals are leaving the us than coming to live here.
Still, the number of those who say they would move to the U.S. remains quite high, with 35 percent admitting that they would relocate if they had an opportunity.
The report echoes studies that had recorded drops in illegal immigration, but it delves into the reasons driving the trend and contrasts the drop with the number of Mexicans who leave the United States. The Mexican undocumented immigrant population peaked in 2007, when 6.9 million were living in the U.S. Therefore, since 2007, more than one million Mexicans are no longer living in the U.S.
“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall”, Donald Trump said as he announced his candidacy for president. Actual facts on immigration, however, paint a much different story.
“This is the first time that we have the actual evidence and numbers of people going back”, report author Ana Gonzalez-Barrera told the Associated Press.
Despite the deportations, the majority of Mexicans who returned to Mexico between 2009 and 2014 have done it of their own volition.
The Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics found that the pull of family factors most into Mexicans’ desire to return home. Only 14 percent surveyed said it was worse.
Mexico’s middle class is emerging strong and growing at a rapid rate, nearly 11 percent in the past decade.
“We know border security has been tightened significantly and we also know the draw of the USA economy was a lot less -but what’s really interesting is the family ties motivation for returning to Mexico”, Capps said. China is pulling up to Mexico, but Pew found that it was not clear from current data whether China has become the leading immigrant country.
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Additionally, his administration focused enforcement on people who had been removed previously from the country and were caught trying to re-enter illegally.
