More Mexican Immigrants Leaving Than Coming To The U.S. — Republicans Wrong Again

Men are housed in a crowded shelter for deportees from the United States in Nogales, Mexico, in 2010.

In fact, according to a new study, not only is immigration from Mexico down, but it has practically reversed, with more Mexicans leaving the US than entering it. Pew also estimates that the number of “unauthorized” Mexican immigrants has dropped from 6.9 million right before the recession to about 5.6 million now. Certainly the anti-immigration rhetoric from many politicians, criminalizing people who enter this country legally and illegally from Mexico may have contributed to the reversal of the migration to the U.S.

“This is something that we’ve seen coming”, Lopez said, according to Fox News.

Trump, a real estate billionaire who has been among the leading candidates for the Republican nomination in the presidential 2016 election, also said he would get the Mexican government to pay for building a wall along the border. Prior to their departure, these immigrants have been living in the US for five years. 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.

Not only that, but, according to Pew, a majority of the 1 million Mexicans who have left the United States did so of their own accord, mostly to be reunited with families. Fewer jobs and less financial opportunity may have discouraged immigrants from arriving or motivated those already here to leave. Less than half of Mexicans (48 percent) said that life in the United States is better now.

“It’s not like all of a sudden they decided they missed their mothers”, Myers said. “It’s been miserable for everyone”. With Mexico’s population aging and its economy steadily growing, he thinks the day will come when Mexico will compete with the United States for young workers.

While the U.S. economy has struggled to recover, Mexico has been largely free of the economic slumps which drove generations of people to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s for work.

Auto manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Ford and GM have built plants in central and northern Mexico, creating thousands of jobs. It now criminalizes people who cross the border a couple of times.

In the past it was easier for immigrants to visit their families and return to the U.S. But with increased border enforcement, they remain in the US until family ties pull them back home. “I could help them while I was there, but family comes before money”. Most believe Obama overstepped his authority when he announced his executive actions on immigration a year ago. Pew said their median age was 39 years in 2013, compared to 29 in 1990. One outcome of that can be seen the Mexican birth rate, In 1980, the fertility rate in Mexico was 7.3, meaning that the average Mexican woman in that year could expect to have seven children in her lifetime.