Net Migration to the U.S. From Mexico Below Zero After the Great RecessionMore than Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.Due south. than take migrated here since the end of the Neat Recession, co-ordinate to a new Pew Research Center assay of newly available authorities information from both countries. The same data sources also bear witness the overall catamenia of Mexican immigrants betwixt the two countries is at its smallest since the 1990s, mostly due to a driblet in the number of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S.

From 2009 to 2014, i million Mexicans and their families (including U.S.-born children) left the U.Due south. for Mexico, according to information from the 2014 Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID). U.S. census data for the aforementioned menses show an estimated 870,000 Mexican nationals left Mexico to come to the U.S., a smaller number than the menses of families from the U.S. to Mexico.

Measuring migration flows between United mexican states and the U.S. is challenging because at that place are no official counts of how many Mexican immigrants enter and exit the U.S. each year. This written report uses the all-time available authorities data from both countries to estimate the size of these flows. The Mexican data sources — a national household survey, and ii national censuses — asked comparable questions about household members' migration to and from Mexico over the 5 years previous to each survey or census engagement. In addition, estimates of Mexican migration to the U.S. come from U.S. Census Agency data, adjusted for undercount, on the number of Mexican immigrants who live in the U.South. (See text box below for more than details.)

Computing the Menstruum from the U.S. to Mexico

To calculate estimates of how many people left the U.S. for Mexico, this written report uses data from the 2014 Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics, or ENADID and the 2010 and 2000 Mexican decennial censuses. Each asked all respondents where they had been living 5 years prior to the date when the survey or census was taken. The answers to this question provide an estimated count of the number of people who moved from the U.Southward. to United mexican states during the five years prior to the survey date. A separate question targets more recent emigrants—people who left Mexico. Information technology asks whether anyone from the household had left for another state during the previous five years; if and then, additional questions are asked well-nigh whether and when that person or people came dorsum and their reasons for returning to United mexican states.

To calculate estimates of how many Mexicans left Mexico for the U.Due south., this study also uses U.South. Demography Agency's American Customs Survey (2005-2013) and the Current Population Survey (2000-2014), both adjusted for undercount, which enquire immigrants living the U.S. their country of birth and the yr of their arrival in the U.South.

Mexico is the largest birth country among the U.South. foreign-born population – 28% of all U.S. immigrants came from in that location in 2013. United mexican states also is the largest source of U.Southward. unauthorized immigrants (Passel and Cohn, 2014).

The turn down in the flow of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. is due to several reasons (Passel et al, 2012). The slow recovery of the U.S. economy subsequently the Corking Recession may have made the U.S. less attractive to potential Mexican migrants and may accept pushed out some Mexican immigrants equally the U.S. job market deteriorated.

In addition, stricter enforcement of U.S. clearing laws, particularly at the U.S.-Mexico border (Rosenblum and Meissner, 2014), may take contributed to the reduction of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.Southward. in recent years. According to one indicator, U.S. border apprehensions of Mexicans accept fallen sharply, to just 230,000 in fiscal twelvemonth 2014 – a level not seen since 1971 (Krogstad and Passel, 2014). At the same time, increased enforcement in the U.S. has led to an increase in the number of Mexican immigrants who have been deported from the U.S. since 2005 (U.S. Section of Homeland Security, 2014).

A majority of the 1 million who left the U.Southward. for United mexican states between 2009 and 2014 left of their own accordance, according to the Mexican government's ENADID survey data. The Mexican survey likewise showed that 6 in ten (61%) return migrants – those who reported they had been living in the U.S. 5 years earlier but as of 2014 were back in United mexican states – cited family reunification every bit the chief reason for their return. By comparison, fourteen% of United mexican states'southward return migrants said the reason for their return was deportation from the U.S.

Mexican Immigrant Population in the U.S. in DeclineMexican immigrants accept been at the center of one of the largest mass migrations in modern history. Betwixt 1965 and 2015 more than sixteen million Mexican immigrants migrated to the U.s. – more than from any other land (Pew Enquiry Eye, 2015). In 1970, fewer than 1 million Mexican immigrants lived in the U.S. Past 2000, that number had grown to ix.4 million, and by 2007 it reached a peak at 12.8 million. Since then, the Mexican-born population has declined, falling to 11.7 million in 2014, as the number of new arrivals to the U.S. from Mexico declined significantly (Passel et al., 2012); meanwhile the reverse flow to Mexico from the U.S. is now higher.

The decline in the number of Mexican immigrants residing in the U.South. has been mostly due to a drib of more 1 1000000 unauthorized immigrants from Mexico from a peak of six.9 million in 2007 to an estimated 5.6 million in 2014 (Passel and Cohn, 2014).

The View From Mexico

In Recent Years, Fewer Mexicans Have Friends or Family in the U.S.The drop in the number of Mexicans living in the U.S. also is reflected in the share of adults in Mexico who report having family or friends living in the U.S. with whom they proceed in bear on. In 2007, 42% of Mexican adults said they kept in contact with acquaintances living in the U.Southward., while today, 35% say so, according to newly released results from the Pew Enquiry Center's 2015 survey in Mexico.i

The views Mexicans have of life north of the border are changing too. While almost half (48%) of adults in United mexican states believe life is better in the U.S., a growing share says it is neither better nor worse than life in United mexican states. Today, a third (33%) of adults in Mexico say those who movement to the U.South. lead a life that is equivalent to that in Mexico – a share 10 percentage points higher than in 2007.

Asked nigh their willingness to migrate to the U.S., 35% say they would motion to the U.S. if they had the opportunity and means to do so, including twenty% of adults in United mexican states who would do so without authority. This is unchanged from 2009 when a third of adults in United mexican states said they would exist willing to migrate to the U.S., and 18% said they would practise information technology without authority (Pew Research Eye, 2009).

Roadmap to the Report

This report is organized as follows. The beginning chapter analyzes statistics on migration between Mexico and the U.Due south. from information sources in both countries. The 2d chapter uses U.S. Demography Agency data to examine characteristics of Mexican immigrants residing in the U.S. in 1990 and 2013. The third affiliate, based on a nationally representative survey of adults living in Mexico, examines trends in Mexican attitudes near life in the U.Due south. and future interest in migrating there, and their opinion of U.S. President Barack Obama's executive action to expand the number of unauthorized immigrants who are allowed to stay in the U.S. legally and work temporarily. Appendix A includes a statistical portrait of Mexican immigrants, compared with all Latin American immigrants and Asian immigrants, while Appendix B explains the report's methodology and data sources.

Is Mexico Still the Largest Source of New Immigrants to the U.S.?

For decades, Mexico has been the height source of newly arrived immigrants to the U.S., only with a recent decline in the menstruation of new immigrants to the U.S. from Mexico, and an increase in the number of new immigrant arrivals from China and Republic of india, Mexico may no longer be the pinnacle source of U.South. immigrants. The U.S. Census Agency recently reported that China overtook Mexico in 2013 equally the leading country for new immigrants (Jensen, 2015). Still, under a different mensurate, United mexican states remains the superlative source of immigrants – at least for now, according to a new Pew Research Eye analysis of Census Bureau data.

Estimates of the number of newly arrived immigrants vary depending on the mensurate used. The Census Bureau'southward analysis was based on the number of foreign-built-in people who said they lived outside of the U.S. in response to the American Community Survey question, "Did this person live in this house or apartment one year ago?" Using this measure for 2013, about 147,000 Chinese immigrants came to the U.S., compared with 129,000 Indian immigrants and 125,000 Mexican immigrants. (The difference between the number of Indian and Mexican immigrants is not statistically pregnant.)

Past contrast, Mexico remains the world's top source of newly arrived immigrants to the U.S. under a unlike American Community Survey question that asks, "When did this person come to alive in the U.S.?" Under this measure, 246,000 Mexicans, 195,000 Chinese and 199,000 Indians arrived in the U.Southward. in 2013 and 2012. (We written report two years because the 2013 arrivals represent only about half of the yr given the way the data are collected.)

Regardless of the exact number of new immigrants from each state arriving in the U.South. each year, the trends are clear: Over the past decade, immigration from Communist china and India to the U.Due south. has increased steadily, while immigration from Mexico has declined sharply. This shift in clearing is noteworthy because since 1965 United mexican states has sent more than immigrants (16.2 million) to the United States than any other state, in what has been the largest wave of clearing in U.S history (Pew Research Centre, 2015).

"Foreign born" refers to people born outside of the United states, Puerto Rico or other U.Due south. territories and neither of their parents was a U.S. denizen. The terms "strange born" and "immigrant" are used interchangeably in this report.

"U.S. born" refers to individuals who are U.Due south. citizens at nascence, including people born in the The states, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories, equally well as those built-in elsewhere to parents who were U.South. citizens. The U.S.-born population encompasses the second generation and the third and higher generation.

"Legal immigrants" are those who have been granted legal permanent residence, those granted asylum, people admitted as refugees and people admitted to the U.S. under a ready of specific authorized temporary statuses for longer-term residence and work. This group includes "naturalized citizens," legal immigrants who have become U.Due south. citizens through naturalization; "legal permanent resident aliens," who have been granted permission to stay indefinitely in the U.Due south. as permanent residents, asylees or refugees; and "legal temporary migrants" (including students, diplomats and "high-tech invitee workers"), who are immune to live and, in some cases, work in the U.S. for specific periods of fourth dimension (usually longer than one year).

"Unauthorized immigrants" are all foreign-born non-citizens residing in the country who are not legal immigrants. These definitions reflect standard and customary usage by the Department of Homeland Security and academic researchers. The vast majority of unauthorized immigrants entered the country without valid documents or arrived with valid visas but stayed by their visa expiration date or otherwise violated the terms of their admission.

"Immigration" to the United States includes only people who are intending to settle in the U.s.a.. U.S. decennial censuses and surveys include people whose usual residence is the The states. Consequently, migrants from Mexico who are in the U.S. for brusk periods to piece of work, visit or shop are generally not included in measures of the U.S. population.

"Return migration" is a concept based on a census or survey question virtually prior residence, specifically residence five years before the census or survey. A "return migrant" to Mexico is a person who lived outside of Mexico (unremarkably in the U.S.) five years before the census or survey and is back in Mexico at the time of the survey.

"Recent migrants" are identified through a question in Mexican censuses and surveys that asks whether any members of the household have left to go to the U.S. in a prior period, commonly the previous five years. The recent migrants may exist back in the household or elsewhere in Mexico (in which case they take "returned" to Mexico) or they may still be in the U.S. or in another country.