More Mexicans leaving United States than arriving

More immigrants from Mexico are leaving the United States than coming into the country, according to a report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center, a finding that marks the end of the largest wave of immigration from a single country in USA history.

The study attributes the decline in net immigration to several factors, including the U.S.’s slow recovery from the recession, an increase in border security and and uptick in deportations.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants cross the US-Mexico border every year.

More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the US than have migrated there since 2009, according to a new research.

The number of Mexican immigrants in the US that have moved back to Mexico now outpaces those making the journey here.

That historical shift comes at a time when immigration is now a bellicose focus in the 2016 presidential race, as Democrats and Republicans argue over how best to modernize the country’s immigration system.

The exact reason for the decline is not entirely clear. However, a growing number (33 percent in 2014) believe that life is no better in the US than in Mexico; the number who believed that in 2007 was only 23 percent. As a result, the USA saw a net loss of 20,000 Mexican immigrants in this time period.

One man, who returned to Mexico in 2005 after working illegally in Los Angeles restaurants for 10 years, told the AP that feeling out of place and dealing with discrimination eventually drew him back to his home.

According to Mexico’s National Survey of Demographic Dynamics, 61 percent of returning citizens say they left the U.S.to be reunited with family.

“U.S. wages are still attractive to migrants”, she said.

The Pew study estimates that there are 5.6 million illegal immigrants now residing in the USA, down from 6.9 million in 2007.

Despite talk of bigger border fences and mass deportation during the current election cycle, more Mexicans are leaving the country than entering. But it remains important for those of us fighting for the human rights of undocumented immigrants and refugees to stay grounded in the factual. Yet in data compiled by Pew based on a survey by the Mexican government, only about 14 percent of Mexican adults said they were deported between 2009 and 2014.

Mexico has not become more alluring, Gonzalez-Barrera said, despite the presence of more jobs in the country – and fewer births means fewer people in the labor pool.