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Going Back Home? Changing Demography and Geography of Mexican Return Migration
Abstract
Return migration has been a constant feature of Mexico–US migration patterns, but its characteristics have changed sharply with time. We use the Mexican censuses and counts of 1995, 2000, 2010, and the complete set of individual and household records of the 2005 Population Count to explore the demographic characteristics of returnees in the context of tighter border control and rising levels of forced return migration. Involuntary and therefore unplanned return is likely to mean greater difficulties of incorporation into the community of origin. The study of the effects of the militarization of the US–Mexico border on migration patterns has focused on the US side. We contribute to this literature by focusing on the Mexican side. We consider the intensity and type of previous migration to the US as compared to current return migration, and State of origin and destination. Our data suggest that particularly attractive destinations for returnees are border cities, prosperous communities and growing metropolitan areas. Findings suggest changes in the demographic composition and geographic distribution of returnees. The discordance between the patterns of outmigration and return is a telling indicator of changes in the overall migration relationship between Mexico and the US. The patterns for 2005 are also observed in 2010 even if the absolute number of inter-censal returnees increased threefold over the period. Finally, we argue that focusing on destinations of return instead of areas of emigration will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding on the nature of future return migration to Mexico and its policy implications.
... Given the growing diversification of return migrants in Mexico (Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Escobar Latapí and Masferrer 2022), incorporation experiences of young deported and pseudo-voluntary return migrants warrants more attention. Acknowledging their unique relationships to both Mexico and the US, we explore how young returnees' social and labor market experiences interact to influence their incorporation journeys in Mexico. ...
... Indeed, previous studies have illustrated how call centers are one of the few employers that do not typically require tedious validation of US-based education records, and do not discriminate against perceived gang members or deportees (Anderson 2015;DaCruz 2018;Golash-Boza 2015). Similarly, tourist industries have also emerged as a site of employment for both deportees and returnees (Becerra Pérez, Cuamea Velázquez, and Meza Ramos 2015;Caldwell 2019;Masferrer and Roberts 2012). While these industries offer young returnees work where they can utilize their English language skills, they often lack fruitful avenues for continued advancement and social mobility. ...
... The vast majority of research on return migration has been conducted on older and largely male populations, despite the fact that women comprise about 30% of the return migration population overall (Nicéforo and Ángel 2018; Hernández and Piñeiro 2019) and that 1.5-generation returnees comprise increasing proportions of migrants returning to Mexico (Denier and Masferrer 2019;Masferrer and Roberts 2012). This study seeks to expand the discussion surrounding return migration by deliberately focusing on a population of both male (n = 31) and female (n = 17) returnees, comprised of deported and compelled or pseudo-voluntary returnees who spent their childhoods and adolescent years in the US. ...
Drawing on interview data with individuals who grew up in the US and returned to Mexico as young adults, this study examines how young returnees who were deported or compelled to leave the US navigate incorporation in Mexico. We find that labor market mobility does not automatically facilitate a sense of belonging. Participation in niche labor markets catering to native English speakers, however, facilitates social incorporation into communities of returnees. Our data suggest that social incorporation and evolving memories of the US powerfully influence returnees’ sense of belonging in Mexico. Even years after return, young return migrants’ incorporation journeys continue to be shaped by constant comparisons between the US and Mexico and a dual ambivalence toward both countries. Within transnational contexts of exclusion, young returnees’ rely on each other to create communities of belonging.
... La siguiente razón por la cual este estudio es de relevancia es porque nos encontramos situados en una región con una larga tradición migratoria como lo es la relación Sonora-Arizona y son múltiples las implicaciones del fenómeno migratorio dentro de nuestra sociedad. Otro aspecto importante de esta antigua relación migratoria es el hecho de que en los últimos años Hermosillo se ha convertido en un punto importante que recibe una cantidad considerable de migrantes de retorno (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). Adicionalmente, es notorio el número de estudiantes transnacionales de retorno inscritos en la Licenciatura en Enseñanza del Inglés y con ello surgen interrogantes acerca de los motivos por los cuales dichos alumnos eligen esta carrera sobre otras. ...
... La migración de retorno ha sido una característica constante del patrón migratorio entre México y Estados Unidos (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012) y según Molina Nava (2012), más del 80 por ciento de la población que regresa a México procede de EUA. Cassarino (2004), menciona que usualmente, la migración de retorno es vista como el resultado de una experiencia migratoria fracasada, la cual no produjo los beneficios esperados. ...
... Sin embargo, cada participante ha vivido una experiencia transnacional única y diferente. Como lo mencioné en la Revisión de la Literatura, históricamente el fenómeno migratorio entre México y Estados Unidos ha sido circular ya que la migración de retorno ha sido una característica constante(Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). De este movimiento circular surge el transnacionalismo, un proceso que además de actividades políticas, tiene que ver con el sentido de pertenencia dentro de ambos paísesBauböck (2003). ...
En este estudio se explora cómo el capital cultural, especialmente el bilingüismo y la identidad bicultural, resultado de la experiencia transnacional, influyeron en las decisiones educativas de nueve estudiantes transnacionales migrantes de retorno de una Licenciatura en Enseñanza del Inglés en Sonora. Las preguntas de investigación planteadas son (1) ¿De qué manera el bilingüismo y la identidad bicultural influyen en la decisión de ingresar a la Licenciatura en Enseñanza del Inglés? (2) ¿Cómo el bilingüismo y la identidad bicultural han contribuido al acceso a la educación superior mexicana? (3) ¿Cómo −y hasta qué punto− los estudiantes transnacionales se han beneficiado de su conocimiento del idioma inglés? Mediante una metodología fenomenológica se utilizaron entrevistas semi-estructuradas y un grupo focal. Entre los hallazgos se encontró que los participantes presentan orientaciones hacia una carrera docente como resultado de sus experiencias educativas transnacionales. Dentro de este mismo proceso los participantes lograron desarrollar un bilingüismo y biculturalidad los cuales forman parte de su capital cultural. Si bien, el inglés es un componente crucial que ha beneficiado a los participantes en aspectos académicos, económicos y socio-culturales, y que también influyó sobre las decisiones y oportunidades educativas, existen otros aprendizajes como lo son una fuerte ética de trabajo, la apertura de mente hacia diferentes posibilidades, la planificación para el futuro y la toma de decisiones informadas.
... A su vez la aparición de comunidades del otro lado de la frontera, siendo la región con mayor número de beneficiarios de IRCA, equivalente a más del 50% de éstos (Durand y Massey, 2003). Por su parte, los flujos que van de las regiones emergentes tienen redes en el lugar de destino más estrechas y menos consolidadas, lo que aumenta su probabilidad de retorno en mayor medida respecto a los de zonas más antiguas en la participación del fenómeno, así de aquellos que su orígenes son rurales tienen una menor probabilidad de retorno (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012) ...
... Además estudios recientes muestran la diversificación de la emigración que tuvo lugar en décadas pasadas, donde ésta dejó de estar localizada en la región tradicional para dar paso a una diversidad de lugares de origen, y así mismo a nuevos destinos y áreas de inserción (Zuñiga y Hernandez- León, 2005) (Zuñiga, 2004). Asociada con esta diversificación, podríamos anticipar un nuevo origen en la manifestación de su retorno (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Alguna de la literatura existente sugiere que estos cambios previos en la emigración contribuyen a explicar los cambios en el retorno contemporáneo (Riosmena y Massey, 2012). ...
... Un argumento central en el comportamiento del retorno en los últimos años obedece a que los lugares de atracción son las fronteras, las áreas prósperas y zonas metropolitanas, quedando sujeta en cierta medida a figurar la forma de la geografía del retorno a las oportunidades que brinda México en actividades como el turismo, la exportación y la maquiladora (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Sin embargo, Masferrer y Roberts (2012) apuntan a que, dado los altos flujos y la larga temporalidad de experimentar el fenómeno, existe una mayor probabilidad de retornar en los migrantes que pertenecen a la región tradicional. ...
... La importancia del estudio del retorno que se registró entre 1990 y 2015 es particular, y diferente de lo que se ha registrado en la historia centenaria del fenómeno, debido a que engloba un periodo de trasformaciones; por un lado, la diversificación del perfil de emigración; consecuencia propia de la legalización de 2.3 millones de mexicanos bajo IRCA en 1986 y la reunificación familiar que se desprendió de este proceso (Durand y Massey, 2003). Otro cambio fue la diversificación de los lugares de origen y de destino (Zúñiga y Hernández, 2005;Terán, 2014), además de la transformación del patrón migratorio con tiempos de estancia más largos en el destino, posponiendo cada vez más el retorno (Terán, 2017) y donde al momento del retorno el origen no es destino (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). ...
... Gmelch (1980) desarrolla el concepto de retorno, diferenciándolo de la reemigración y la migración circular; en definitiva, el autor considera al retorno como un movimiento donde los individuos regresan a su tierra natal. Para aclarar el concepto, se hace necesario explicar lo que implica el termino tierra natal, dado que ante las condiciones del retorno contemporáneo donde gran parte de quienes regresan lo hacen a un lugar distinto del que nacieron (Durand, 1986;Masferrer, 2012;Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). El retorno quedaría acotado sólo aquellas personas que su lugar de residencia y su lugar de nacimiento posterior a una migración internacional son coincidentes. ...
... ). Sin embargo, como sostieneMasferrer (2012;Masferrer y Roberts, 2012), el origen no es destino para un gran número de mexicanos que han regresado de Estados Unidos, ante la situación de la migración de retorno actual donde la geografía de este fenómeno se ha diversificado(Terán, 2014) sería una definición muy acotada y limitada a la realidad actual.La discusión alrededor de las propias definiciones del retorno migratorio y los conceptos, que en lo estricto no sean idénticos, pero si equiparable de la terminología utilizada para referirse al movimiento de regreso subsecuente a la emigración(Castillo, 1997), lleven a que cada una de las fuentes parta de su propia definición y por tanto a la adecuación de sus instrumentos de captación.Lo que ha implicado que las bases de datos disponibles que miden el retorno lo perciban acorde a sus propios objetivos, y siendo esto una limitante para la comparabilidad entre las fuentes. Durante los siguientes párrafos nos concentraremos en 4 ejes principales: a) La definición de la que parte la fuente; b) El alcance espacial; c) Cobertura temporal y d) Alcances y limitaciones de la fuente. ...
Cambios de la dinámica de retorno de mexicanos desde Estados Unidos, a nivel municipal de 1990 a 2015.
... A su vez la aparición de comunidades del otro lado de la frontera, siendo la región con mayor número de beneficiarios de IRCA, equivalente a más del 50% de éstos (Durand y Massey, 2003). Por su parte, los flujos que van de las regiones emergentes tienen redes en el lugar de destino más estrechas y menos consolidadas, lo que aumenta su probabilidad de retorno en mayor medida respecto a los de zonas más antiguas en la participación del fenómeno, así de aquellos que su orígenes son rurales tienen una menor probabilidad de retorno (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012) ...
... Además estudios recientes muestran la diversificación de la emigración que tuvo lugar en décadas pasadas, donde ésta dejó de estar localizada en la región tradicional para dar paso a una diversidad de lugares de origen, y así mismo a nuevos destinos y áreas de inserción (Zuñiga y Hernandez-León, 2005) (Zuñiga, 2004). Asociada con esta diversificación, podríamos anticipar un nuevo origen en la manifestación de su retorno (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). ...
... Un argumento central en el comportamiento del retorno en los últimos años obedece a que los lugares de atracción son las fronteras, las áreas prósperas y zonas metropolitanas, quedando sujeta en cierta medida a figurar la forma de la geografía del retorno a las oportunidades que brinda México en actividades como el turismo, la exportación y la maquiladora (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Sin embargo, Masferrer y Roberts (2012) apuntan a que, dado los altos flujos y la larga temporalidad de experimentar el fenómeno, existe una mayor probabilidad de retornar en los migrantes que pertenecen a la región tradicional. ...
Análisis sobre la aparición de nueva regiones de retorno en el territorio mexicano. Acercamiento a nivel municipal 2000-2010
... Return migration to Mexico nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2010, with nearly 31% of Mexican migrants to the U.S. returning to their country of birth in 2010 (Masferrer et al. 2022). Moreover, return flows have dispersed to new geographic areas with younger, more educated and more female returnees ending up in border towns, tourist towns and large cities (Masferrer and Roberts 2012). Despite new trends in return migration flows, the experiences of return among 1.5generation immigrants (Rumbaut 2004), or immigrants who arrived in their host countries as children, remain under-researched. ...
... I, along with one graduate student, collected the bulk of the data for this article in Mexico during the spring of 2015 and summer of 2018. I focused data collection on large cities and tourist destinations where recent return migrants have concentrated (Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Escobar Latapí and Masferrer 2022). I recruited interviewees by targeting industries, such as call centers, restaurants and hotels serving English-speaking patrons. ...
This study examines how emotions propel migration from the United States to Mexico and subsequent migration within Mexico for young deported migrants and migrants compelled to return. Though often relegated to a second tier of importance after political or economic factors, emotions are central to the decisions that young migrants make about where to live and how to identify. I argue that emotions influence young immigrants in the U.S. to make life changing decisions to return to Mexico at moments of acute stress or uncertainty. Additionally, I argue that both compelled and deported return migrants carve out spaces of belonging and construct identities through emotional labor. Specifically, I find that young returnees draw on memories from the U.S., connections with other returnees, and imagined attachments to their ancestral cultures in Mexico as they adopt proud Mexican identities in surroundings that often mark them as outsiders on both sides of the border.
... UU. (Inegi, 2011), a consecuencia del recrudecimiento del control migratorio en ese país y las secuelas de la crisis económica de 2008. Tijuana fue el principal destino de migrantes de retorno en 2010, seguido por otras ciudades de la frontera como Ciudad Juárez, Mexicali y Matamoros (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). Entre las principales razones del regreso se ubica la reunifi cación familiar, la falta de trabajo y la conclusión de los estudios (Inegi, 2015b). ...
... La alta migración de repatriación a la frontera norte de México se puede explicar por varios factores. En primer lugar, algunos autores argumentan que la intensidad de la movilidad hacia los municipios fronterizos corresponde a los cambios en la geografía de la migración interna en México (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012), así las ciudades que atraen migrantes internos también movilizan a aquellos de retorno internacional, ya que ofrecen mayores oportunidades laborales respecto a los lugares de origen de las personas. ...
This article analyzes the relationship between immigration from the US and education continuity in US or Mexican schools among the population living in the municipalities of the northern border of Mexico. Having US citizenship and a Mexican birth certificate are found to be mediators of this relationship.
... Since then, certain border municipalities -including Tijuana -have played a key role as receivers of returnees from the U.S. (Masferrer and Roberts, 2012). The reasons for this include a) job opportunities as a pull factor for migration (Cruz, 2012); b) the role of these municipalities as deportation points, with migrants more likely to stay longer in the border area due to the difficulty of crossing back over (Passel et al., 2012); and c) their proximity to the U.S., enabling the development of cross-border relationships (Vargas and Aguilar, 2018), which are particularly important for mixed-citizenship families and those who left family members in the U.S. ...
... Lastly, fewer transnational students report a 'very low' socio-economic level, with respect to non-transnationals. This means their financial situation is slightly better, which is consistent with the profile of Mexicans emigrating to and returning from the U.S. (Masferrer and Roberts, 2012). ...
Since 2008, about half a million children have arrived in Mexico from the United States, most of whom are US‐born. However, due to limited statistical data, there have been few quantitative studies on their school integration. Using data from the 2017 School Integration Survey, conducted in 86 lower secondary schools in the Tijuana metropolitan area, we analyse the relationship between students’ liking of school and their binational school trajectories in this border city with high return migration. The results, based on a multivariate statistical analysis, show that students who studied in that country exhibit a lower liking of school, which correlates with a higher number of years of schooling in the U.S. and less time spent in Mexico since last arrival. Various mediating mechanisms are identified, such as limited Spanish proficiency, teacher indifference and lack of cultural identification with Mexico. The implications for education policy are also discussed.
... Si bien los aspectos por comprender del retorno son diversos, parte de los estudios se han concentrado en los motivos que han ocasionado el regreso y las políticas migratorias; otros en las formas del retorno y el individuo como agente-sujeto migrante retornado; también se han iniciado debates sobre la medición y captación de los retornados en el lugar de origen. Algunos investigadores se han planteado la discusión de la concepción del fenómeno, y algunos otros la integración social y laboral en el lugarde origen (Gmelch, 1980;Galor y Stark,1990;Durand, 2004Durand, , 2006Cassarino, 2004;Cobo, 2008;Aguilar, 2010;Eguiguren, 2010;Cobo, Giorguli MIGRANTES DE RETORNO EN BRASIL, ECUADOR v Mtxlco 111 y Alba, 2010;Nieto, 2011¡ Alfara y Izaguirre, 2011Rivera, 2011Rivera, , 2013Rivera, y 2013aSchramm, 2011;Moncayo, 2011;Masferrer y Roberts, 2012;Anguiano, Cruz y Ga.rbey, 2013;Prieto y Koolhaas, 2013;Torán, 2014;Gandini, Lozano y Gaspar, 2014). ...
Desde mediados de los años ochenta del siglo :xx, la migración internacional ha mostrado fuertes cambios. el aumento de la migración internacional ha dado como resultado mayores movilidades humanas, incrementando así la multidimensionalidad y la multidireccionalidad del fenómeno. El interés en el estudio del retorno migratorio se debe en gran medida a su creciente aumento, en especial en los países de la región latinoamericana. Este trabajo tiene como propósito identificar si en la inserción laboral de los migrantes retornados influye, además de sus características sociodemográficas, la ubicación geográfica de los mismos en Brasil, Ecuador y México. Para ello se utiliza la información que ofrecen los datos censales recopilados en la Serie Internacional de Microdatos Integrados de Uso Público (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series Intemational, IPUMS, por sus siglas en inglés), por el Centro de Población de la Universidad de Minnesota, correspondientes al año 2010.
... Between 2005 and 2015, large numbers of Mexican immigrants in the USA returned to Mexico, resulting in the first negative rate of net migration from Mexico to the USA since the 1930s (Denier & Masferrer, 2019;Giorguli-Saucedo et al., 2016;Masferrer & Roberts, 2012) and a shrinking population of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the USA (Gonzalez- Barrera & Krogstad, 2019). The US government forcibly removed many of these immigrants through deportation; between 2005 and 2014, the US government removed 2.5 million Mexican immigrants (DHS, 2018). ...
Since 2007, large numbers of Mexican migrants in the USA returned to Mexico voluntarily or through deportation. Theory argues that US immigration policy undermines immigrant health through the deprivations of undocumented legal status and deportation, but few studies have considered the combined influences of these exposures on health. We estimate the probability of poor self-rated health, recent physical health symptoms, and recent mental health symptoms by legal status and deportation experience among 42,853 Mexican migrants surveyed in the Survey of Migration in the Northern Border of Mexico (EMIF-Norte) between 2012 and 2014. Deportation is more strongly associated with health than undocumented legal status among returnees in Mexico. Considering the two dimensions of immigration enforcement combined reveals the especially poor health and mental health status of deported returnees, regardless of their legal status in the USA.
... Esto ya se ha evidenciado en otras investigaciones donde se ha demostrado que el destino del retorno no es sólo su lugar de origen; en busca de mejores oportunidades, muchos migrantes prefieren establecerse en otras localidades urbanas, ya sea en la frontera norte o en las principales ciudades del país, que son los nuevos polos de atracción de la población retornada. Estas nuevas geografías de la migración de retorno plantean dificultades de reintegración de migrantes a la sociedad mexicana, ya que incluyen el retorno involuntario mediante la deportación y también el regreso de personas a lugares que pueden no ser fácilmente capaz de apoyarlos (Canales y Meza, 2018;Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). ...
En este artículo se describen y analizan las condiciones laborales
de la población migrante retornada de Estados Unidos
a México en el periodo 2000-2020. Se utilizan los principales
indicadores laborales en cuatro regiones migratorias para
conocer cómo han cambiado las condiciones de esta población
en dicho periodo. El análisis se basa en la hipótesis de que
la población migrante retornada es vulnerable laboralmente
y que, al pasar los años, las condiciones siguen siendo difíciles
para garantizar que estas personas se desarrollen y alcancen
una estabilidad económica y social en su país de origen. La
principal fuente de información para el análisis son los microdatos
censales de 2000, 2010 y 2020 del Instituto Nacional de
Estadística y Geografía (INEGI).
... Moreover, as a consequence of the changing border policies in the US, Mexican migrants are exposed to more deportations. According to Masferrer and Roberts (2012), even when these migrants are sent back home because of criminal activity, they return to the US to reunite with their families. In other words, there is a circular migration again. ...
For a long time, return migration had been one of the neglected topics of migration literature. However, in recent years, many studies discussing return migration in various dimensions have been published. This paper aims to assess the main findings of return migration studies, particularly in recent years, with an emphasis on the multifaceted character of return migrations. This study also reveals that, in the last few decades, the transnational ties established by migrants with their homelands have changed their perspectives on return (i.e., re-migration). This trend shows that while human mobility increases with the development of transportation and communication technology, re-migration tends to take on a cyclical, rather than a permanent character in recent times.
... There are two demographic-migratory processes-contemporary and temporarythat are related to the northern Mexican border and that must be considered because they shape the cultural identity of the societies that experience them. The first is associated with the increase in the number of international immigrants who have returned to border municipalities of Mexico since 2017 (Inegi, 2020; Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). The border has ceased to be only the magnet of internal migration; it has also become a magnet of return migration from the second half of this century (Canales, 2012;Vargas Valle, 2015), due in part to the real estate bubble, which burst in 2008 in the U.S., leading to a global financial crisis, 5 and reinforced by the emergence of an anti-immigrant climate in that country during the administration of President Donald Trump. ...
This article aims to shed light on the impact of the cross-border context on educational aspirations of middle and high school students living in Tijuana, Baja California. For this purpose, qualitative response regression models are estimated considering variables of a demographic and socio-educational nature, of the migratory field and related to commitment, self-motivation, and family support. Data was collected by the Mexican Migration Field Research Program is used. We found that expectations are not very sensitive to migratory and cross-border circumstances. On the other hand, the educational level of the parents, dedication to study, have family members at the university and speak English, does seem relevant in the formation of expectations. We concluded that demographic and socio-educational factors, as well as their own effort, and family support determine to a greater extent the aspirations of the youth.
... Hay dos procesos demográfico-migratorios -contemporáneos y coyunturalesque están relacionados con la frontera septentrional mexicana y que deben ser tomados en cuenta en virtud de que dan forma a la identidad cultural de las sociedades que los experimentan. El primero está asociado al incremento en el número de inmigrantes internacionales retornantes a los municipios fronterizos de México desde 2017 (Inegi, 2020;Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). La frontera ha dejado de ser solo el imán de la migración interna, para convertirse también en uno de migración de retorno a partir del segundo lustro del presente siglo (Canales, 2012;Vargas Valle, 2015), debido en parte a la burbuja inmobiliaria que estalló en 2008 en eua que llevó a una crisis financiera global, 5 reforzada por el surgimiento de un clima antiinmigrante en aquel país durante la administración del presidente Donald Trump. ...
El presente artículo pretende identificar la influencia del contexto transfronterizo en las aspiraciones educativas de los estudiantes de educación media superior que radican en Tijuana, Baja California. Para este objetivo se estiman modelos de regresión de respuesta cualitativa que consideran variables de índole demográfica y socioeducativa, del ámbito migratorio, y relacionadas con el empeño, la motivación propia y el apoyo familiar. Se utilizan datos recopilados por el Mexican Migration Field Research Program. Se encontró que las expectativas son poco sensibles a las circunstancias migratorias y transfronterizas. En cambio, el nivel educativo de los padres, la dedicación al estudio,
tener familiares cercanos estudiando y saber inglés son variables que sí parecen relevantes en la formación de las expectativas. Se concluye que los aspectos demográficos y socioeducativos, así como la dedicación propia y el apoyo familiar, determinan en mayor medida las aspiraciones de los jóvenes
... Este tipo de migración había estado pensada como una extensión más del proceso migratorio México Estados Unidos, en que los migrantes regresaban a sus comunidades de origen dentro de una dinámica migratoria circular y temporal (Durand, Massey, y Zenteno, 2001). En la actualidad, el retorno ha cambiado para incluir nuevas regiones de destino de los retornados, así como mayor heterogeneidad en las características socioeconómicas y migratorias de las personas que retornan a México, voluntaria e involuntariamente (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012;Parrado y Gutiérrez, 2016). ...
En los últimos años la investigación académica ha avanzado en la generación de información sobre el volumen, perfil y características demográficas de los migrantes de retorno, lo cual ha generado un llamado a la atención oportuna de las necesidades particulares de esta población desde la agenda pública. Aunque esta caracterización es el primer paso para discutir los obstáculos que enfrentan los migrantes de retorno y sus familias en los contextos de llegada, se ha estudiado de manera menos sistemática el nivel de vulnerabilidad de esta población y las barreras institucionales para el ejercicio de sus derechos sociales, en concreto el acceso a la salud, la educación, la vivienda y el trabajo. Es por lo anterior que la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos y El Colegio de México desarrollaron el proyecto “Migración de Retorno y Derechos Sociales: Barreras a la Integración” durante el año de 2018. Este trabajo muestra los resultados de investigación a través de cuatro documentos de política que dan cuenta de la situación de las personas retornadas en el ámbito educativo, de salud vivienda y en indicadores demográficos puntuales como la participación laboral, la composición por sexo y su distribución geográfica, entre otros. Además, este documento señala recomendaciones puntuales en torno a la superación de las barreras institucionales que enfrenta la población retornada.
... A partir de la década de los noventa las migraciones desde México a Estados Unidos experimentaron una notable transformación, pasando de ser un fenómeno exclusivamente centrado en adultos varones que se desplazaban al norte en busca de trabajo a incorporar mujeres, niñas, niños y adolescentes (Masferrer y Roberts 2012;Santos et al. 2010;Valdéz 2012). Desde entonces y hasta la actualidad, la niñez y la adolescencia siguen formando parte de este fenómeno con una presencia creciente y con un importante rol como actores políticos, económicos y culturales (Valdéz 2011, 11). ...
La política migratoria de Trump da continuidad al retorno de mexicanos a su país de origen. La magnitud del flujo, la alta presencia de niñas, niños y adolescentes y la complejidad y diversidad de sus trayectorias y características constituyen elementos distintivos del actual retorno. Uno de los estados mexicanos que más migración en retorno recibe es el de Oaxaca, configurado desde los años ochenta como uno de los principales expulsores de migrantes a Estados Unidos que ahora regresan acompañados de sus hijos menores. Consecuentemente, el sistema educativo, principal vía de (re)inserción de la niñez y la adolescencia a la sociedad en contextos migratorios, experimenta una mayor demanda de servicios por parte de esta población en edad escolar con características y necesidades distintivas. Los hallazgos de esta investigación muestran los principales elementos que impiden la (re)inserción al sistema educativo mexicano de las niñas, niños y adolescentes procedentes de Estados Unidos y sus consecuencias.
... The changes in border policies led to drastic shifts in migration. For example, in the 1970s the majority of Mexicans in the US had moved back and forth between the two countries over a five-year period, whereas 30 years later the majority were staying in place without leaving the US due to the militarization of the border (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Another shift has been the labor sectors that draw Mexican migrants to the US. ...
... For example, there is a need to explore the intersection of family stressors on sibling relationships beyond immigration status, including underemployment and financial insecurity. Given that immigration enforcement holds the potential to disrupt close-knit and extended kinship structures that are often valued within Mexican-origin families (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012), additional research with larger diverse samples would advance understandings of the different ways in which sibling relationship shapes children's socioemotional development under a constellation of complex environmental features. ...
Current U.S. immigration policies disproportionately impact Mexican-origin mixed-status families, yet few studies examine the consequences of immigration enforcement (e.g., immigration-related arrest and detention) and deportation on sibling dynamics. Given this gap, this study focuses on the experiences and changes within sibling relationships in the aftermath of parental detention and deportation. We analyzed a subsample of 20 citizen children interviews (7 sibling dyads; 2 sibling triads) from a multi-site binational study that examined the psychosocial functioning of U.S. citizen children with undocumented Mexican parents. Using inductive thematic analysis, we explored the roles and functional importance of sibling relationships before and after experiences of parents' detention and deportation. Our findings suggest that prior to detention or deportation experiences, sibling relationships were described as "normal." After these experiences, however, sibling relationships changed and developed protective adaptations, including more open communication about their experiences and the assumption of caregiving roles. In cases where deportation did not occur, there still existed the threat of future immigration-related action, which contributed to fear and an inability to share feelings and experiences among siblings. Our findings suggest that sibling relationships might serve as an important locus of stability and protection. Yet, adaptive communication may not emerge as long as the threat of apprehension, detention, and deportation exists.
... Jalisco is an appropriate site for this study as it has been a historical 'sending' region for international migration with sporadic changes in flows in response to economic and political circumstances in the United States and locally (Durand et al., 2001;Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Although, out migration from Jalisco to the United States has decelerated in recent years, it continues to be significant within the Mexico context (Leyva-Flores et al., 2018). ...
This study explores the association between migration intentions and alcohol use among west-central Mexico adolescents living in high migration communities. This study used the baseline data from the Family Migration and Early Life Outcomes (FAMELO) project (N = 1286), collected in 2018. We used multiple imputations to address missingness and propensity score matching to reduce the selection bias. We also conducted subgroup analyses to compare gender difference (i.e., boys vs. girls) on the relationship between migration intention and alcohol use. The findings show that for the whole sample, youth with migration intentions had significant higher odds (OR = 1.78; p = .010) of having a lifetime drinking experience when compared to youth who reported no interest in living abroad, but this association remained significant only for boys (OR = 2.14; p = .010). This study makes an important contribution to our understanding of the etiology of migration intentions and alcohol use for adolescents living in sending migration communities. The findings have specific alcohol prevention, policy, and future research implications in Mexico and the U.S.
... In that scenario, the coefficient of the relative wages of immigrants could underestimate the true magnitude of the immigrant wage gap in the recession period. However, the previous research on the scope of Mexican return migration during the Great Recession find no evidence that the demographic attributes of Mexican return-migrants in 2005-2010 shifted dramatically from previous periods (Masferrer and Roberts, 2012). Furthermore, any such bias should be minimized when we exclude Mexican high school dropouts from the sample. ...
Using CPS data from 2007 to 2012, we examine the contemporaneous effect of the Great Recession on the relative wages of immigrant men. Compared to pre-recession period, immigrants see a modest decline in their relative wages during the recession regardless of model specification. After the recession, immigrants’ relative wages largely recover from the recession-induced decline, but the wage disadvantage does not completely revert back to its pre-recession level. Selective in- and out-migration by immigrants or selection of natives into employment do not seem to drive the results. It appears that, during the recession, immigrants may have traded higher employment with lower wages and employers might have been willing to hire them as a cost-saving measure. The results could have implications for how relative wages of immigrants respond to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic Recession.
... In 2000 there were fewer than 5000 return migrants in the state of Veracruz. That number jumped to more than 50,000 by 2010 (Masferrer and Roberts 2012). Ramón initially moved to a small city of fewer than 70,000 people in the most southeastern part of Veracruz in 2008. ...
More than half a million young people who have spent a significant portion of their childhood in the United States now live in Mexico. Although family reunification is the prevailing reason for an individual to return to Mexico, a growing population of returnees return to access higher education opportunities. Using qualitative methods, the author provides a case study of an engaged student and immigrant activist living in North Carolina who, upon realizing he was able to attend neither a 4-year university nor the local 2-year community college, asserted his agency by returning to his home state of Veracruz, Mexico, in pursuit of a university education. This paper examines the political and educational barriers that precipitated his return to Mexico, as well as the challenges faced when re-acculturating to his birth country. Highlighted throughout the findings are the ways in which neoliberalism has constructed an inequitable and alienating transnational space for immigrant youth.
... No obstante, un hecho demográfico coyuntural, muy relevante en la frontera norte mexicana, ha sido el aumento de la inmigración de retorno durante los últimos años (Mendoza, 2013), en parte debido a la crisis económica de 2008 y al ambiente anti-inmigrante que ha prevalecido durante la presidencia de Donald Trump. La proporción y el volumen de los inmigrantes internacionales retornantes a México ha aumentado sobre todo en los estados fronterizos (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012). ...
Este trabajo indaga, a través de un estudio exploratorio y descriptivo,
sobre el efecto de la migración internacional, el transnacionalismo, y otros factores sociales y económicos, en las expectativas de educación superior de los jóvenes en la región Tijuana-San Diego. La hipótesis de partida es que las decisiones en materia de educación de estos jóvenes son función del grado de exposición al entorno migratorio, aunque son las características socioeconómicas del individuo las que determinan la magnitud de este efecto. Se encontraron diferencias en las expectativas entre los estudiantes de Tijuana y San Diego; los primeros suelen manifestar mayor interés y dar mayor valor a la educación media superior como vía de desarrollo. Al mismo tiempo, las aspiraciones entre los jóvenes de Tijuana que habían vivido experiencias transnacionales y los que no las habían vivido, fueron diferentes. No obstante, las expectativas de los jóvenes resultaron más sensibles a los elementos socioeconómicos que a las circunstancias migratorias y transnacionales. Variables de tipo demográfico, socioeconómico y aspiracional fueron las más relevantes a la hora de conformar las exceptivas. En este último caso, el papel directo de los padres en la atención escolar de los hijos fue muy relevante en la conformación de sus aspiraciones.
... Return migrants' households owned significantly more properties and land parcels than non-migrants' households, a pattern consistent with the wealth accumulation commonly observed among international migrants (Garip, 2012(Garip, , 2014. Finally, consistent with well-documented patterns of Mexican migration (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012;Rendall & Parker, 2014), return migrants disproportionately resided in rural areas with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants, while non-migrants were more evenly distributed across community types. ...
This study investigates the effect of international migration experience on entrepreneurship in sending areas. To identify prosperous businesses that create jobs and encourage economic development, this study isolates businesses other than street-vending enterprises with non-family employees. Retrospective life history data from the Mexican Migration Project (N = 11,789 persons & 146,372 person-years) was used to estimate the annual probability of becoming an entrepreneur across 170 Mexican communities between 1975 and 2017. This study found that (1) any prior migration experience increases the probability of entrepreneurial entry relative to non-migrants; (2) accumulated months of migration experience are positively associated with the probability of entrepreneurial entry; (3) undocumented status is associated with a lower probability of entrepreneurial entry. The positive effect of accumulated migration experience on entrepreneurship suggests that international migrants can accumulate human and financial resources that are essential to early stage entrepreneurship. Thus, entrepreneurship represents an important pathway through which international migration can encourage economic development in less developed regions. At the same time, the results suggest that that immigration policies in receiving countries can undercut migrants’ capacities to mobilize resources and contribute to economic development upon return. These findings suggest that target migration creates a win–win by addressing labor shortages in receiving countries, while transferring resources to sending areas that enable economic mobility and development.
... Por último, también es mayor su tendencia a residir en una entidad distinta de la de su nacimiento, a vivir en localidades menos urbanas y en las regiones histórica y fronteriza, a di ferencia de los no migrantes. Como se ha encontrado en otros estudios, los jóvenes que retornan de Estados Unidos también son migrantes internos y, además de regresar a regiones de ex pulsión como la histórica, han buscado otros destinos, por ejemplo, algunas ciudades en la región fronteriza, que les permi ten mantener una vida transnacional y les brindan mayores oportunidades laborales (Masferrer y Roberts, 2012;Vargas y Aguilar, 2018). Cabe señalar que en la distribución de los jóvenes de 25 años o más, a diferencia de los de 18 a 24 años, se observan ciertas particularidades. ...
El objetivo es analizar cómo ha sido la inserción educativa y laboral de estos jóvenes, que pudieran haber sido elegibles para el programa DACA. Al tener en común la experiencia de migración en Estados Unidos y el nivel de estudios, se supone que la situación educativa y laboral de los inscritos en el DACA hubiese sido similar a la de estos jóvenes si, en lugar de quedarse en ese país, hubiesen migrado a México. Además, este ejercicio es útil ya que nos muestra las circunstancias que podrían vivir los beneficiarios del DACA si fueran forzados a retornar a su país de origen ante el escenario de terminación del programa.
... Return migrants' households owned significantly more properties and land parcels than non-migrants' households, a pattern consistent with the wealth accumulation commonly observed among international migrants (Garip, 2012(Garip, , 2014. Finally, consistent with welldocumented patterns of Mexican migration (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012;Rendall & Parker, 2014), return migrants disproportionately resided in rural areas with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants, while non-migrants were more evenly distributed across community types. ...
This study investigates the effect of international migration experience on entrepreneurship in sending areas. To identify prosperous businesses that create jobs and encourage economic development, this study isolates businesses other than street-vending enterprises with non-family employees. Retrospective life history data from the Mexican Migration Project (N = 11,789 persons & 146,372 person-years) was used to estimate the annual probability of becoming an entrepreneur across 170 Mexican communities between 1975-2017. This study found that (1) any prior migration experience increases the probability of entrepreneurial entry relative to non-migrants; (2) accumulated months of migration experience are positively associated with the probability of entrepreneurial entry; (3) undocumented status is associated with a lower probability of entrepreneurial entry. The positive effect of accumulated migration experience on entrepreneurship suggests that international migrants can accumulate human and financial resources that are essential to early stage entrepreneurship. Thus, entrepreneurship represents an important pathway through which international migration can encourage economic development in less developed regions. At the same time, the results suggest that immigration policies in receiving countries can undercut migrants’ capacities to mobilize resources and contribute to economic development upon return. These findings suggest that target migration creates a win-win by addressing labor shortages in receiving countries, while transferring resources to sending areas that enable economic mobility and development.
... 4 The non-voluntary character (whether forcible or not) of return meant that returnees were unprepared to make the move. Under these circumstances, returnees' capacity to mobilise the savings, 7 contacts, and experience necessary to exert an impact in their communities of origin may have been limited (Cassarino 2004;Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Parrado and Gutiérrez 2016;Denier and Masferrer 2019). ...
Since 2006, the Great Recession and tighter migration policies in the U.S. have increased the rates of return migration to Mexico. Scholars debate whether high rates of return motivate greater electoral engagement via the democratic norms returnees may bring back with them. An alternative account holds that returnees are seen as dissimilar by their non-migrant co-nationals, causing returnees to disengage from politics. We contribute to this debate using municipal data on voter turnout and on rates of return migration for the case of Mexico from 2000 to 2010. Relying on an instrumental strategy that exploits migrants’ exposure to changes in unemployment rates as an exogenous predictor for return, we find robust evidence that high rates of return result in less electoral participation in presidential and local elections. Besides, electoral disengagement seems to be intensified by the presence of criminal violence, which surged during our period of analysis. Return migration may have a positive impact on other modes of political participation; but at least when it comes to voting, our research aligns with the pessimistic camp of the debate in that return migration increases electoral apathy.
... Rural areas tend to have weaker infrastructure and more limited access to services, such as healthcare [23]. To account for differences in state-level infrastructure and migrant-clustering in particular regions [26], all models included state-fixed effects. ...
To examine health insurance coverage among the 550,000 U.S.-born minors living in Mexico. Representative data from Mexico’s 2018 National Survey of Demographic Dynamics was used to describe health coverage among persons aged 0–17 living in Mexico (N = 78,370). Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to identify the association between birthplace (Mexico versus the United States) and health insurance coverage in Mexico. 39% of U.S-born minors living in Mexico in 2018 lacked health insurance compared to just 13% of Mexican-born minors. Logistic regression found that, net of potential confounders, being born in the United States was associated with 87% lower odds of being insured among minors in Mexico. U.S.-born minors disproportionately rely on private insurance programs and are particularly likely to be uninsured in the first year back from the United States. Special attention is needed to ensure access to care among U.S.-born minors in Mexico.
... The US-Mexico migratory system is a unique example in the world for its long history-more than a century of migration-and its magnitude. During the twentieth century, return migration from the United States to Mexico included circular patterns mostly composed of temporary male workers (Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Roberts et al. 2017).These temporary workers emigrated to the United States without their families and returned to Mexico once their labor contracts terminated. In the 1980s and 1990s, women joined the migration waves as spouses facilitating family reunification as well as for permanent settlement in the country of destination (Garip 2019). ...
Transnational students constitute a growing population in Mexico. They are part
of the returning flow of immigrant families moving from the United States back to
Mexico. As students, transnational children represent a challenge to Mexico’s education
system as they encounter major identity and linguistic barriers in school settings.
Drawing on the literature of bilingualism and positioning theory, we analyze
the adaptation process of nineteen Mexican–American youth enrolled in high school
from a retrospective perspective. Our findings demonstrate that multiple ruptures
occurred upon arrival. First, the students’ lifestyles and family dynamics changed
drastically. At school, students are seen as “different” by their peers and teachers,
which triggers feelings of rejection and superiority. Yet, student’s narratives also
show a path of agentivity during the adaptation process through the use of language:
transnational students learn to reposition themselves by developing their skills in
Spanish and making use of their abilities in English.
... The US-Mexico migratory system is a unique example in the world for its long history-more than a century of migration-and its magnitude. During the twentieth century, return migration from the United States to Mexico included circular patterns mostly composed of temporary male workers (Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Roberts et al. 2017).These temporary workers emigrated to the United States without their families and returned to Mexico once their labor contracts terminated. In the 1980s and 1990s, women joined the migration waves as spouses facilitating family reunification as well as for permanent settlement in the country of destination (Garip 2019). ...
Transnational students constitute a growing population in Mexico. They are part of the returning flow of immigrant families moving from the United States back to Mexico. As students, transnational children represent a challenge to Mexico’s education system as they encounter major identity and linguistic barriers in school settings. Drawing on the literature of bilingualism and positioning theory, we analyze the adaptation process of nineteen Mexican–American youth enrolled in high school from a retrospective perspective. Our findings demonstrate that multiple ruptures occurred upon arrival. First, the students’ lifestyles and family dynamics changed drastically. At school, students are seen as “different” by their peers and teachers, which triggers feelings of rejection and superiority. Yet, student’s narratives also show a path of agentivity during the adaptation process through the use of language: transnational students learn to reposition themselves by developing their skills in Spanish and making use of their abilities in English.
... One limitation faced when using the MMP dataset concerns the size of the sample of metropolitan communities relative to changes in the regions where migrant flows originate. In recent decades, the origins of Mexico-US migration have diversified from the traditional sending regions in western Mexico to new sending areas, mainly in the southern and eastern regions of the country (Riosmena and Massey 2012;Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Torre and Giorguli 2015). While the present analysis includes a considerable number of metropolitan communities, the sample is not large enough to compare the operation of migrant networks across traditional and emerging sending areas. ...
Background: Cumulative causation ‒ the self-reproduction of migration through community social ties ‒ is a phenomenon central to the continuation of Mexico‒US migration, particularly for flows originating in rural areas. A debate has emerged over whether this self-reproducing process also occurs in large urban areas. Objective: I aim to determine whether cumulative causation explains US-bound migration from metropolitan areas in Mexico. Methods: Data comes from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), which covers 154 origin communities in Mexico (30 of which are in metropolitan areas) and spans the period 1970‒2015. Event-history models are used to estimate the association between community ties and taking a first and last US trip in rural areas, small cities, and metropolitan areas. Results: The findings support the contention that the migration process from metropolitan areas in Mexico is self-reproducing. Differences in the strength of community ties for predicting international repeat migration between rural and metropolitan areas have declined in recent decades. Contribution: Previous studies that found no evidence in support of the self-reproduction of migration in metropolitan areas were limited by either the small number of communities assessed or inadequate measurement of community ties. Using a larger sample of communities and better measurement, this study shows that social ties in large cities can play a role similar to that played by rural ties in facilitating and perpetuating international migration. The results suggest that metropolitan migrants from more recently surveyed localities use community ties to reduce the costs and risks of migration.
... For some, working in the U.S. provided capital and skills to start small businesses, reflected in higher rates of self-employment compared to Mexicans with no migration history (Hagan et al. 2014;Papail 2002;Parrado and Gutiérrez 2016). While men remain the majority of more recent returnees, they are increasingly "returning" to new destinations, establishing patterns of migration that stand distinct from traditional short-term circular migration to and from home (Masferrer and Roberts 2012;Riosmena and Massey 2012; Quintana Romero and de la Pérez Torre 2014; Terán 2014). The growth of novel but shared sites of relocation for returnees has tended toward locations with relatively attractive economic opportunities: northern border areas, tourist centers, and large metropolitan areas are increasingly important sites of re-incorporation (Riosmena 2004;Rivera Sánchez 2013;Vargas Valle 2015). ...
In recent years, a historically unprecedented number of Mexican migrants to the U.S. returned to Mexico. Compared to previous cohorts, recent return migrants are distinct in their motivations for return, who they return with, and where they settle. Family reunification remains a pull, but more stringent enforcement of immigration law forced return as a result of deportation, and recent recessions eroded economic opportunities in the U.S. labor market, perhaps spurring others to leave. A growing number of U.S.-born migrants, many with limited experiences in Mexico, are also accompanying family members on return. Increasingly this exceptional flow of migrants is settling outside of traditional sites of emigration/return, dispersing throughout Mexico. This paper addresses how the economic incorporation of this diverse group of migrants varies across regions in Mexico over a transformational period. Using the 2000 and 2010 Mexican Censuses and a 2015 Intercensal Survey, we compare the labor market outcomes of migrants across regions of return. We find that relative earnings of recent cohorts of returnees and U.S.-born migrants are lower than those garnered by previous cohorts. The declining fortunes of individuals with U.S.-Mexico migration experience are largest in the non-traditional northern, southern/southeastern, and central regions.
... In the last decade, Mexico has experienced unprecedented levels of return migration, a trend likely to continue in the foreseeable future (Tim Henderson 2018). It has also been argued that with the growing Mexican economy and changes in U.S. immigration policies, the composition of those who are choosing to return home has profoundly changed (Chort et al. 2015;Masferrer and Roberts 2012). Among immigrants to the U.S. from Mexico the number and characteristics of those who return to Mexico have fluctuated over time, with many increasingly returning home to reunite with family (Gonzalez-Barrera 2015). ...
Data from the Mexican Census reveal that between 2005 and 2015, nearly two million migrants returned voluntarily to Mexico from the United States. Currently, high rates of voluntary-return migration to Mexico continue at the same time that migration flows to the U.S. steadily decline. This return migration trend presents serious challenges for Mexico, a country that has long struggled to satisfy the health care demands of its population. However, little is known about return migrants’ health care needs. In this study, we examine the health risk profiles and healthcare utilization for Mexican return migrants and the non-migrant population. We examine how these outcomes are affected by both the migration and return migration experience of the returnee population, while paying close attention to age-group differences. We employ inverse probability weighting regression adjustment (IPWRA) and logistic regression analysis of a sample of 348,450 respondents from the 2014 National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID) to test for differences in health conditions between those Mexican return migrants and non-migrants. We then turn to the Survey of Migration at Mexico’s Northern Border (EMIF Norte, for its Spanish acronym) for the 2014–2017 period to further assess whether certain characteristics linked to aging and the migration experience influence the prevalence of chronic health conditions, and health insurance coverage among 17,258 returned migrants. Findings reveal that compared to non-migrants, returnees are more likely to be physically impaired. These poor health outcomes are influenced by the migration and return migration experience and vary by age group and duration of residence, the time that has elapsed since returning to Mexico. We do not find an association between return migration and mental or emotional distress. Policy implications are discussed in light of immigration reform and restrictions on eligibility for health insurance coverage for older adults in Mexico.
... In addition to these findings based on MMP data, Mexican Census data also indicate that the number and characteristics of returnees have changed over time (Parrado and gutierrez 2016;Masferrer and Roberts 2012). Deportations and economic crises have accelerated processes of return migration and created greater heterogeneity in the population of returnees. ...
This article examines continuities and changes in the prevalence and determinants of first migration and return between Mexico and the United States. The results show a dramatic decline over time in the likelihood of migrants’ making a first trip. The empirical design distinguishes processes affecting migrating cohorts from those emanating from period conditions, paying particular attention to changes in educational selectivity and the legal status of the flows. The definition of cohort and period corresponds roughly to changes in U.S. migration policy and the American economy. We find that the likelihood of return migration also declined in conjunction with period conditions that are related to border enforcement. The drop in the likelihood of return was particularly sharp for undocumented migrants, and, over time, return flows increasingly consist of documented migrants. The implications of these findings for immigration policy in the United States and for the incorporation of returnees in Mexico are discussed.
Durante los últimos años, las niñas, niños y adolescentes se han venido constituyendo como actores emergentes de la movilidad internacional. Caracterizada por una eminente complejidad y diversidad, esta población desarrolla hoy sus procesos de movilidad internacional en un contexto fuertemente marcado por el incremento de las restricciones migratorias y del control fronterizo. Entonados por el país del sueño americano -Estados Unidos-, estos elementos han resurgido con fuerza en las últimas décadas, logrando una alteración en cascada de los flujos migratorios en las Américas.
A través de los trabajos de 23 autoras y autores, este libro presenta un análisis interdisciplinario en el que dialogan los campos de conocimiento jurídico, educativo y de salud sobre los retos que enfrentan hoy las niñas, niños y adolescentes migrantes en los contextos de Centro y Norteamérica. Uno de los principales objetivos del libro es dinamitar la invisibilidad y el adultocentrismo a los que las niñeces y adolescencias siguen siendo sometidas desde los estudios migratorios.
Resumen. En este trabajo presentamos nuestra respuesta a la pregunta: ¿cuáles son las competencias que deben desarrollar los docentes de las escuelas de México para atender las necesidades de los alumnos provenientes de las escuelas de Estados Unidos? Antes de formular nuestras respuestas, a manera de antecedente, elaboramos un inventario de los obstáculos que enfrentan las niñas, niños y adolescentes (NNA) que llegan a las escuelas de México procedentes de las escuelas de Estados Unidos, y confeccionamos una breve síntesis de los desafíos que enfrentan hoy las escuelas mexicanas para in-tegrar a los alumnos que tienen experiencia educativa en Estados Unidos. Después de responder a la pregunta que da origen a este trabajo, a manera de conclusión el capítulo termina esbozando los protocolos de bienvenida que recomendamos para que la transición escolar de los alumnos migrantes internacionales sea exitosa y pedagógicamente adecuada a su singularidad. Introducción En este trabajo presentamos los frutos de un ejercicio de reflexión que realizamos teniendo en mente el siguiente objetivo: identificar las competencias docentes que son necesarias para que las maestras y maestros de México puedan atender de manera adecuada a los alumnos y alumnas que se integran a las escuelas de México después de haber estado inscritos en las escuelas de Estados Unidos.
Este capítulo presenta un resumen de la intricada historia de la enseñanza del español a las comunidades hispanohablantes en Estados Uni- dos, así como una reflexión sobre sus posibles futuros en ambos lados de la frontera México-Estados Unidos.3 Se propone que dichos futuros se sitúan en la intersección entre las políticas educativas y lingüísticas del sistema educativo estadounidense que promueven la asimilación al inglés y discriminan al español, y la dinámica sociolingüística al interior de la propia comunidad hispanohablante que, guiada por ideologías monolingües, estigmatiza y excluye las prácticas bilingües de la niñez y juventud latinas al tiempo que privilegia el aprendizaje del español como lengua global / internacional en el estudiantado anglohablante. Se subraya la urgencia de la actualización teórico-práctica docente y se invita a la reflexión de estos mismos temas desde el sistema educativo mexicano, de cara a la creciente migración de retorno de jóvenes mexico-estadounidenses.
Migration systems shape social life, including the timing and sequencing of key demographic behaviors such as marriage, childbearing, and household formation. Existing research has linked migration and marriage in Mexico through various mechanisms but provides less guidance on whether aspirations for migration and marriage are closely linked. Given that union formation is distinct within migration contexts, this article focuses on adolescents’ plans for marriage and the extent to which migration aspirations shape the desired timing of their union formation, by examining how four distinct measures of migration aspirations are related to adolescents’ ideal ages at union formation in rural Jalisco, Mexico. Drawing from data on adolescents ( n = 1,403 adolescents) from the Family Migration and Early Life Outcomes (FAMELO) project (collected in 2017–2018), it uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to analyze how various types of adolescent migration aspirations — including permanent migration, temporary labor migration, leaving the community at any point in time, and expected migration location — are associated with adolescents’ ideal age at union formation. Results reveal that all migration aspirations are associated with higher ideal ages at the marriage in unconditional models. However, these associations are not always robust to the inclusion of other factors, including adolescent aspirations in other life domains, particularly education. Results highlight the ongoing transition from a “culture of migration” to a “culture of education” in Mexico. Given that Mexican migration has changed dramatically in recent years, the findings presented here provide a window for understanding how these changes in migration are reflected in adolescent goals and likely subsequent behavior.
North America has survived a tumultuous three decades since the implementation
of the North American Free Trade Agreement. What characterizes our shared region
today? What sort of region can advance our shared interests and well-being over
the next generation? This volume offers an agenda for how the region’s leaders can
forge inclusive and effective strategies that ensure North America’s next decades
build upon past successes—while addressing serious shortcomings.
This study uses the example of Mexican return migrants to contribute to the ongoing scholarly dialogue about reintegration. The paper looks at how migrants experience living in the USA and how their return and post-return experiences influence their reintegration in two locations, one rural (Huaquechula, in the state of Puebla) and one urban (Mexico City). Data collection consisted of 60 in-depth interviews, 30 in each site. Participants were mostly young to middle-aged adults, 35 out of 60 being male. Additionally, key documents such as government policies were analysed in a bid to understand the geopolitics of mobility as well as governments’ policies and practices regarding return. From the analysis, I confirm that return migrants identify (i) the type of return, (ii) the place of return—including economic opportunities and social programmes available—and (iii) the sociocultural environment as key aspects that influence their reintegration process. The analysis concludes that whilst, at times, return can be leveraged to serve specific geopolitical goals, it is also necessary to advocate and develop a robust, comprehensive national reintegration policy, especially for an adequate infrastructure to implement it. Policies should therefore offer sustained instrumental (material assistance), informative (advice and guidance) and psychosocial support throughout return migrants’ lengthy process of reintegration.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are frequently an immigrant’s primary contact for support and service provision following deportation. We used semi-structured interviews and survey data collected in 2016 from the directors of 15 migrant-serving ONG in Tijuana, Mexico, to study how these Organizations support deportees. Building on the interdisciplinary nonprofit literature, we apply theories related to public values to frame our analysis. Our results suggest that NGOs in Tijuana contribute to public value across six roles while supporting deportees. As a pilot project, this paper provides a foundation for future studies of NGOs and the dynamics of U.S.-Mexico border cities receiving deportees.
This book explores the intangible human capital which international migrants bring with them and develop further when working and living abroad, drawing on case studies and original data from Central Europe and Mexico–USA.
The book demonstrates that despite the fact that many international migrants might be working in their destination countries at a level below their formal qualifications, or else might be formally unskilled, but with practical non-validated skills, they can still acquire and enhance considerable informal human capital in the form of mind skills, soft skills, maker skills and life skills. The book analyses how migration-impacted informal human capital (MigCap) is acquired and enhanced as a result of international migration and what the opportunity and constraint structures are for their acquisitions and transfers. Adopting a comprehensive perspective, the book investigates how migration-impacted informal human capital is transferred by migrants between localities and areas of human actions and activities.
Moving beyond the focus on migration as a source of economic capital, this book demonstrates that learning by observing, communicating and doing with others, embedded in social relations can facilitate the enhancement of intangible human capital among both skilled and unskilled migrants. It will be of interest to researchers of migration, sociology, economics, management and business studies, and other related social science disciplines.
This chapter examines how young adults adapt to life in Mexico after growing up and attending school in the United States. Experiencing a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement in the United States, the young migrants highlighted in this chapter felt compelled to leave or were deported from the United States. Interruptions in education, work, and, most devastatingly, family life marked their initial returns to Mexico, and continued to affect their opportunities and social embeddedness years later. They all lost precious time, money and autonomy as they adapted to their country of birth.
Desde 2009 el saldo neto migratorio entre México y Estados Unidos es casi nulo. Aunque la economía estadounidense se ha recuperado de su peor crisis moderna, la amenaza de incremento a las deportaciones y contextos socialmente hostiles hacia los connacionales en Estados Unidos continúa. Se estima que el número de retornados desde Estados Unidos se triplicó entre 2005 y 2010, pasando de 267 mil a 824 mil. En 2015 este número descendió a 440 mil3. No sólo el volumen cambió, sino que quienes vuelven y las condiciones bajo las que retornan también lo hicieron. Las políticas para su reintegración laboral deben ser comprensivas en los perfiles de los retornados y de sus trayectorias de reinserción. En este texto analizamos las condiciones laborales de los retornados y señalamos directrices para avanzar en el diseño de políticas dirigidas a su atención.
La migración de hidalguenses a Estados Unidos de América se ha modificado de forma sustancial en los últimos años, actualmente son cada vez menos los hogares que reciben dinero del exterior, y sin embargo, existe un flujo permanente de migrantes. A la par de estos procesos, la migración de retorno y el aumento de personas jóvenes e infantes nacidas en Estados Unidos se presentan como fenómenos que dan cuenta de nuevos actores que configuran dinámicas sociales y demográficas en los municipios hidalguenses de alta y muy alta intensidad migratoria.
Recent estimates suggest that nearly half of all international migrants return to their communities of origin within five years of emigration. Motivated by high levels of return migration, scholars are increasingly investigating the ways in which return migrants mobilise resources they acquire abroad, such as human and financial capital, to achieve economic mobility upon return. Yet, resource mobilisation and labour market reintegration unfold in heterogeneous community contexts. To understand the labour market reintegration of return migrants in various local contexts, we draw on an eight-year study that included interviews with 153 Mexican returnees to examine how labour market reintegration and resource mobilisation vary across three types of communities: urban, urban-adjacent, and rural. U.S.-Mexico migration is the largest binational return flow in the world, providing a unique opportunity to explore variations in the reintegration experiences of returnees. We find that labour market reintegration and resource mobilisation are contextually embedded processes that respond to the social, economic, and spatial features of migrants’ origin communities. Following our analysis, we extend three testable hypotheses that can guide future research on international migration and return.
Objetivo/contexto:
Las ciudades contemporáneas están siendo situadas estratégicamente para procesar la gobernanza global. Tanto en el norte como en el sur globales, hay un interés creciente por identificar y analizar las capacidades de las ciudades para asumir su rol global. Ante este contexto, el objetivo de este artículo es poner a prueba la estrategia analítica de la desnacionalización para estudiar un proceso global de la Ciudad de México.
Metodología:
Con un acercamiento interdisciplinar y cualitativo, y poniendo en diálogo a la sociología global con teorías de relaciones internacionales (política exterior de las ciudades), esta investigación recurrió al enfoque analítico de la desnacionalización para comprender cómo lo global se forma desde dentro de los Estados-nacionales. Para profundizar en dicho proceso de desnacionalización, planteamos un estudio de caso de la Ciudad de México, su política exterior y su figura de ciudad santuario.
Conclusiones:
Siguiendo el enfoque analítico propuesto, y con base en los hallazgos realizados (la mirada asistencial y no de derechos de las políticas de una ciudad santuario y el no reconocimiento de las pertenencias múltiples de los migrantes), esta investigación concluye que la escala micro de lo global es una ruta útil para comprender los procesos globales contemporáneos más allá de las miradas estadocéntricas.
Originalidad:
La contribución original de esta investigación es situar lo global como un proceso que sucede dentro de los Estados-nacionales y avanzar en el estudio de la política exterior, no solo asociada al Estado sino en relación con otros actores.
Este libro ha documentado el proceso de definición, adopción y utilización de la metodología oficial de medición de la pobreza en México. Los capítulos incluidos no solo constituyen una memoria histórica, sino que presentan el primer esfuerzo sistemático por ampliar el conocimiento y la información disponible para enriquecer las decisiones metodológicas en el futuro
For many Tlacuitapenses, the United States is home. They have families, jobs, homes, and other assets in the United States, directly linking their economic well-being with the ebbs and flows of the U.S. economy. In Au- gust 2007 the global financial system began to crumble, and on Decem- ber 1, 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research officially declared that the U.S. economy was in recession. At the time of this writing, the recession has lasted for more than 28 months, making it the longest reces- sion since 1929 (NBER 2010). Between the beginning of the recession in December 2007 and December 2009, the number of jobless in the United States rose from 7.7 million to 15.3 million, and the unemployment rate climbed from 5 to 10 percent. The unemployment rate for Latinos liv- ing in the United States was 3 percentage points higher than the national level, at 12.9 percent in December 2009 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008; 2010).
Este documento de trabajo describe los flujos y las características sociodemográficas de los migrantes repatriados en México, los los programas públicos de atención a estos migrantes en la frontera norte de México y las experiencias de retorno forzado.
En este artículo analizamos pautas de emigración y retorno de las comunidades mexicanas localizadas en regiones tradicionalmente emisoras y en nuevas comunidades de emigración. Las regiones tradicionales de origen se ubican en los Estados más occidentales de México, mientras que las nuevas están localizadas en el sur de Ciudad de México o cerca de la frontera entre México y los Estados Unidos. Realizamos estimaciones de modelos discretos de historia de eventos que predicen la probabilidad de salida y retorno en los primeros viajes a los Estados Unidos, y de salida y retorno en viajes posteriores a los Estados Unidos. En ambos tipos de comunidades encontramos que el capital social es decisivo para incrementar las probabilidades de salida en el primer viaje, pero declina su importancia para predecir las probabilidades de partida de los viajes siguientes, que están más influenciados por el capital humano relativo a la migración. Los migrantes de ambos grupos de comunidades usan la migración internacional como medio para financiar la adquisición de viviendas y de negocios, pero los migrantes de nuevas comunidades emisoras buscan primero negocio y luego las propiedades inmobiliarias, mientras que entre los de comunidades tradicionales es a la inversa. Los esfuerzos por parte de los Estados Unidos de impedir las migraciones entre México y Estados Unidos militarizando la frontera han fallado, especialmente entre los migrantes de comunidades emisoras tradicionales que tienen tradiciones migratorias muy establecidas y acceso al capital humano y social específico a la migración. /// In this article we analyze patterns of emigration and return to Mexican communities located in traditional migratory regions and in new emigration communities. The traditional communities of origin are located in the states to the far west of Mexico and the new origin communities are located to the south of Mexico City or in states near the Mexico-U.S. border. We estimate discrete time event history models predicting the likelihood of departure and return on first trips to the United States, and departure and return on subsequent trips. In both sets of communities we find that social capital is critical in raising the odds of departure on a first trip, but declines in importance in predicting the odds of departure on later trips, which are influenced more by migration-related human capital. Migrants from both sets of communities use international migration as a means of financing the acquisition of homes and businesses, but migrants from the new origin communities seek businesses first and then homes while among those from traditional communities it is the reverse. The efforts made by the United States to prevent Mexico-U.S. migration by militarizing the border have failed, especially among migrants from traditional sending communities with well-establised migratory traditions and great access to migration-specific human and social capital.
We present a method for dividing the historical development of community migration streams into an initial period and a subsequent takeoff stage with the purpose of systemically differentiating pioneer migrants from follower migrants. The analysis is organized around five basic research questions. First, can we empirically identify a juncture in the historical development of community-based migration that marks the transition from an initial stage of low levels of migration and gradual growth into a takeoff stage in which the prevalence of migration grows at a more accelerated rate? Second, does this juncture point exist at roughly similar migration prevalence levels across communities? Third, are first-time migrants in the initial stage (pioneers) different from first-time migrants in the takeoff stage (followers)? Fourth, what is the nature of this migrant selectivity? Finally, does the nature and degree of pioneer selectivity vary across country migration streams?
In this article we explore the variability of US-Mexico migration, positioning the emerging discourse on transnational migration within a migration systems approach. Looking at factors in the social and economic structures of Mexico and the US, we evaluate the prevalence of transnational migration patterns among Mexican migrants in conjunction with past patterns of temporary and permanent migration. Transnational migration and the communities it creates are conceived of as a different path of adjustment for migrants and, using Hirschmans's concept of the Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, we illustrate the reasons underpinning the predominance of transnational migrant communities among migrants of rural origin. Finally, we introduce original fieldwork that explores the prevalence of different migration patterns among urban migrants and validates the highly differentiated nature of Mexican migration.
Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re-embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not obtain residence permit to six different countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Togo and Vietnam. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis, we identify several key factors that influence prospects for embeddedness, such as individual and family characteristics, position in the migration cycle, and the role of pre- and post-return assistance. We find that the possibilities for successful return are highly dependent on the living circumstances provided in the host country: returnees who were enabled to engage in work, had access to independent housing and freedom to develop social contacts proved to be better able to exercise agency and maintain self-esteem. Post-return assistance by non-governmental organizations will be particularly helpful when financial support is combined with human guidance and practical information to enhance a more sustainable return process.
The Mexico-U.S. migration flow is one of the world's largest, but is also among the more difficult to quantify and capture in survey sources. In this context, the Survey of Migration at the North Border of Mexico (EMIF) offers a unique source of information on both regulated and unauthorized components of flows of Mexican-born migrants to and from the U.S., from 1993 to the present. The survey is conducted using probabilistic sampling methods at transit points of the eight main border-crossing cities of Mexico. The EMIF has been used very little in the international scholarly literature, possibly in part because its statistical properties are not well established. We evaluate the EMIF here by comparison to alternative estimates of emigration and return migration from national household surveys and censuses in Mexico and the U.S. We find the EMIF's primary strength is in capturing returning male migrants of working ages. A secondary strength is in its capturing male emigrants at all but the younger working ages. Its estimates of male emigrants are double those of U.S. data sources (in which they appear as immigrants). We attribute this to better capture of unauthorized and circular migrants in the EMIF. Its coverage of female emigrants and return migrants is less reliable, but appears to have improved in the early 2000s. The EMIF represents reasonably well the geographic origins and educational attainment of Mexico's migrants to and from the U.S., but captures less educated migrants better than more educated migrants.
En este artículo analizamos pautas de emigración y retorno de las comunidades mexicanas localizadas en regiones tradicionalmente emisoras y en nuevas comunidades de emigración. Las regiones tradicionales de origen se ubican en los Estados más occidentales de México, mientras que las nuevas están localizadas en el sur de Ciudad de México o cerca de la frontera entre México y los Estados Unidos. Realizamos estimaciones de modelos discretos de historia de eventos que predicen la probabilidad de salida y retorno en los primeros viajes a los Estados Unidos, y de salida y retorno en viajes posteriores a los Estados Unidos. En ambos tipos de comunidadea encontramos que el capital social es decisivo para incrementar las probabilidades de salida en el primer viaje, pero declina su importancia para predecir las probabilidades de partida de los viajes siguientes, que están más influenciados por el capital humano relativo a la migración. Los migrantes de ambos grupos de comunidades usan la migración internacional como medio para financiar la adquisición de viviendas y de negocios, pero los migrantes de nuevas comunidades emisoras buscan primero negocio y luego las propiedades inmobiliarias, mientras que entre los de comunidades tradicionales es a la inversa. Los esfuerzos por parte de los Estados Unidos de impedir las migraciones entre Máxico y Estados Unidos militarizando la frontera han fallado, especialmente entre los migrantes de comunidades emisoras tradicionales que tienen tradiciones migratorias muy establecidas y acceso al capital humano y social específico a la migración
The attention paid by international organisations to the link betweenmigration and development in migrants’ origin countries hashighlighted the need to revisit approaches to return migration.Moreover, the growing diversity of migratory categories (rangingfrom economic migrants to refugees and asylum seekers) necessitatesa distinction between the various types of returnee. We still need toknow who returns when, and why; and why some returnees appear asactors of change, in specific social and institutional circumstances at home, whereas others do not. The first objective of this paper is to analyse how return has been dealt with by international migrationtheories, emphasising particularly the assumptions on which they rest. This theoretical overview is necessary to show how return has been defined and located in time and space, and how the returnee has been depicted. The second objective is to take the various approaches to return migration a step further by elaborating on the theoretical insights that have been extensively proposed. The conceptual approach to returnees is then revisited, taking into account a set of distinguishing criteria, i.e. the returnee’s “preparedness” and “resource mobilisation”.
Partiendo de que cualquier intento de medición es vano si no se tienen claros los conceptos, decidimos emprender la labor de precisar, hasta donde fuese posible, los conceptos de marginalidad, marginación, pobreza y desigualdad, conceptos estrechamente vinculados a la política de combate a la pobreza. Desde que el Conapo propuso y calculó el índice de marginación en México no falta quien lo asocie con el viejo concepto de marginalidad, a pesar de que la única similitud es morfológica; en realidad se trata de conceptos muy diferentes. Por otro lado, no es inusual que se confundan las nociones de desigualdad en la distribución del ingreso y pobreza: muchas veces cuando se informa que aumentó la desigualdad automáticamente se piensa que también lo hizo la pobreza y viceversa. Sin embargo, la investigación en México ha mostrado que después de las crisis de 1982 y de 1994 ha tenido lugar una disminución de la desigualdad pero combinada con un mayor empobrecimiento de la población.
We present theoretical arguments and empirical research to suggest that the principal mechanisms of cumulative causation do not function in large urban settings. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we found evidence of cumulative causation in small cities, rural towns and villages, but not in large urban areas. With event-history models, we found little positive effect of community-level social capital and a strong deterrent effect of urban labor markets on the likelihood of first and later U.S. trips for residents of urban areas in Mexico, suggesting that the social process of migration from urban areas is distinct from that in the more widely studied rural migrant-sending communities of Mexico.
Cientos de miles de mexicanos salen de su país cada año para Estados
Unidos. Casi la mitad de estos regresan dentro de los doce meses
siguientes. Al utilizar una muestra de hombres en edad de trabajar
(MxFLS), encontramos que ser migrante impacta en la probabilidad
de empleo. En los estados fronterizos con EU, los migrantes que han
regresado tienen menos probabilidad de trabajar. Pero este impacto
no se observa cuando corregimos el modelo estadístico, considerando el
hecho de que los factores que determinan la migración también pueden
influenciar el empleo.
We investigate the level and selectivity of emigration from the United States among foreign-born adults. We use the CPS Matching Method (Van Hook et al. 2006) to estimate the probability of emigration among foreign-born adults aged 18–34, 35–64 and 65? from 1996 to 2009 (N = 92,852). The results suggest higher levels of emigration than used in the production of official population estimates. Also, indicators of economic integration (home ownership, school enrollment, poverty) and social ties in the U.S. (citizenship, having young children, longer duration in the United States) deter emigration. Conversely, having connections with the sending society, such as living apart from a spouse, was associated with emigration, particularly among Mexican men. Health was least strongly related to emigration. Simulations suggest that selective emigration may alter the home ownership and marital status, but not health, composition of immigrant cohorts. The implications for public policy are discussed.
The utility of postcensal population estimates depends on the adequate measurement of four major components of demographic change: fertility, mortality, immigration, and emigration. Of the four components, emigration, especially of the foreign-born, has proved the most difficult to gauge. Without "direct" methods (i.e., methods identifying who emigrates and when), demographers have relied on indirect approaches, such as residual methods. Residual estimates, however, are sensitive to inaccuracies in their constituent parts and are particularly ill-suited for measuring the emigration of recent arrivals. Here we introduce a new method for estimating foreign-born emigration that takes advantage of the sample design of the Current Population Survey (CPS): repeated interviews of persons in the same housing units over a period of 16 months. Individuals appearing in a first March Supplement to the CPS but not the next include those who died in the intervening year, those who moved within the country, and those who emigrated. We use statistical methods to estimate the proportion of emigrants among those not present in the follow-up interview. Our method produces emigration estimates that are comparable to those from residual methods in the case of longer-term residents (immigrants who arrived more than 10 years ago), but yields higher-and what appear to be more accurate-estimates for recent arrivals. Although somewhat constrained by sample size, we also generate estimates by age, sex, region of birth, and duration of residence in the United States
Researchers in the U.S. and Mexico have variously asserted that return migration from the U.S. to Mexico has increased substantially, remained unchanged, or declined slightly in response to the 2007-2009 U.S. recession and global financial crisis. The present study addresses this debate using microdata through mid-2009 from a large-scale, quarterly Mexican household survey, the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE), after first validating the ENOE against return migration estimates from a specialist demographic survey, the 2006 National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID). No evidence of increased return migration is found. Statistically significant declines in return migration, however, are found between the immediately prerecession 2006/07 year and the 2008/09 recession year, and between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008 when the global financial crisis had just been triggered.
This research note examines continuities and changes in the profile of Mexican migration to the United States using data from Mexico's Encuesta Nacional de la Dinamica Demografica, the U.S. Census, and the Mexican Migration Project. Our analysis generally yields a picture of stability over time. Mexico- U.S. migration continues to be dominated by the states of Western Mexico, particularly Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Michoacan, and it remains a movement principally of males of labor-force age. As Mexico has urbanized, however, out-migration has come to embrace urban as well as rural workers; and as migrant networks have expanded, the flow has become less selective with respect to education. Perhaps the most important change detected was an acceleration in the rate of return migration during the early 1990s, reflecting the massive legalization of the late 1980s.
Challenging many common perceptions, this is the first book fully dedicated to understanding a major new phenomenon-the large numbers of skilled urban workers who are now coming across the border from Mexico's cities. Based on a ten-year, on-the-ground study of one working-class neighborhood in Monterrey, Mexico's industrial powerhouse and third-largest city, Metropolitan Migrants explores the ways in which Mexico's economic restructuring and the industrial modernization of the past three decades have pushed a new flow of migrants toward cities such as Houston, Texas, the global capital of the oil industry. Weaving together rich details of everyday life with a lucid analysis of Mexico's political economy, Rubén Hernández-León deftly traces the effects of restructuring on the lives of the working class, from the national level to the kitchen table.
Past research on international migration from Mexico to the United States uses geographically-limited data and analyzes emigrant-sending
communities in isolation. Theories supported by this research may not explain urban emigration, and this research does not
consider connections between rural and urban Mexico. In this study we use national data from Mexico to investigate rural and
urban emigration. We find that a central motivation for emigration – self-insurance through labor market diversification –
is most relevant to less rural, non-metropolitan places. Paradoxically, while Mexican cities have the lowest rates of emigration,
the rural places that are spatially proximate to cities have the highest rates. These findings suggest that while urban development
retains emigrants within city borders, it may generate emigration out of neighboring rural places.
The phenomenon of forced repatriation for non-citizens has grown exponentially since the passing of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and the Patriot Act of 2001. This development is the `natural' result of the three wars on the globalized `other': the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, and the war on the immigrant (see Brotherton and Kretsedemas, 2008). Based on five years of ethnographic study (2002—7) with Dominican deportees in both the Dominican Republic and the United States we set out to answer two questions: how do Dominican deportees fare when they return to their `homeland' after living most of their lives in the United States? And how are deportees reacted to by different levels of Dominican society after being labeled by the public media as criminals and as anti-social elements? In our analysis of the data we found that the crisis of subjectivity of the deportee hinged around two prominent themes: the twin notions of place and displacement and the experience of stigmatization. We concluded that almost regardless of how long the deportee had lived in the United States the stain of a criminal past on his or her identity was permanent. Furthermore, the majority felt that despite their `freedom' they were still `doing time' in a world to which flock thousands helped by these same deportees to get the most out of their (tourist) time (Kempadoo, 1999).
Using data gathered in 25 Mexican communities, the authors link individual acts of migration to 41 theoretically defined individual-, household-, community-, and macroeconomic-level predictors. The indicators vary through time to yield a discrete-time event-history analysis. Over the past 25 years, probabilities of first, repeat, and return migration have been linked more to the forces identified by social capital theory and the new economics of migration than to the cost-benefit calculations assumed by the neoclassical model. The authors find that Mexico-U.S. migration stems from three mutually reinforcing processes: social capital formation, human capital formation, and market consolidation.
This paper evaluates the strategy for controlling ‘unwanted’ immigration that has been implemented by the US government since 1993, and suggests explanations for the failure of that strategy to achieve its stated objectives thus far. Available evidence suggests that a strategy of immigration control that overwhelmingly emphasises border enforcement and short-changes interior (especially workplace) enforcement has caused illegal entries to be redistributed along the south-west border. The evidence also suggests that the financial cost of illegal entry has more than quadrupled; that undocumented migrants are staying longer in the United States; that migrant deaths resulting from clandestine border crossings have risen sharply; and that there has been a surge in anti-immigrant vigilante activity. Consequences predicted by advocates of the concentrated border enforcement strategy have not yet materialised: there is no evidence that unauthorised migration is being deterred at the point of origin; that would-be illegal entrants are being discouraged at the border after multiple apprehensions by the Border Patrol and returning home; that their employment prospects in the US have been curtailed; or that the resident population of undocumented immigrants is shrinking. It is argued that a severely constrained employer-sanctions enforcement effort that has left demand for unauthorised immigrant labour intact is the fundamental reason why steadily escalating spending on border enforcement during the last ten years has had such a weak deterrent effect. Reasons for the persistence of a failed immigration control policy are discussed, and alternatives to the current policy are evaluated.
The interdisciplinary field of migration studies is split into internal and international migration, characterised by different literatures, concepts, methods and policy agendas. Most migration scholars nowadays research international migration, even though, quantitatively, internal migration is more important. Yet the distinction between internal and international moves becomes increasingly blurred, not only because of geopolitical events and the changing nature and configuration of borders, but also because migrants' journeys are becoming increasingly multiple, complex and fragmented. We present a schematic model that sets out 10 migration pathways that combine internal and international migration, and return migration, in various sequenced relationships. We survey the limited literature that attempts to compare and integrate internal and international migration within the same theoretical framework, both general models and some case-study literature from Mexico. We consider three approaches where theoretical transfer seems to hold potential: systems approaches, migrant integration, and the migration–development nexus. We conclude that considerable potential exists for integrating the study of internal and international migration, at both the theoretical and the empirical level. Too often one is studied without reference to the other, yielding a partial analysis. However, we baulk at attempting any ‘grand theory’ of migration which incorporates all types of migration, in all places and at all times.
This paper analyzes self-selection of returning immigrants. We propose an empirical model for this purpose, and apply it to Israeli-born immigrants who arrived in the United States during 1970–79 and returned to Israel during 1980–89. The results, based on analyses of the 5 per cent Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) of the 1980 and 1990 United States censuses, suggest that those who return from the United States to Israel have reached a higher level at school than those who remain in the United States. However, the income analysis suggests that, at each schooling level, those who returned to Israel would have been less successful in the United States labour market than Israelis of similar schooling (and other measured characteristics) who remained in the United States. These results were corroborated using Israeli census data that include information on returning Israelis.
There are three distinct sources of Mexico-U.S. migration flow: the oldest stream from rural communities in central western Mexico, an incipient stream from interior urban areas, and a small but steady stream from Tijuana, a northern border city. Using the Mexican Migration Project data with expanded geographic coverage, I identify these streams and examine how differences in the origin community in terms of family-based migration-related social capital, internal migration experience, and labor force participation shapes the likelihood that men in the community initiate and continue migratory trips. I find four patterns of Mexican migration that make up the flow from central Mexico to northern Mexico and the U.S.; (1) the well-established flow of mostly undocumented low-skill agricultural labor migrants originating in the rural areas of central western Mexico and moving directly to the U.S.; (2) a new stream of mostly undocumented U.S.-bound migrants from urban interior communities with a greater range of human capital; (3) internal migrants who move to Tijuana as a final destination, and (4) career migrants who make Tijuana a home base for making repeated, mostly undocumented, trips to the U.S.
Since the mid-1990s the United States has enacted a series of laws that make it easier to deport noncitizens. Drawing on findings from interviews with a random sample of 300 Salvadoran deportees, we examine how family relations, ties, remittance behavior, and settlement experiences are disrupted by deportation, and how these ties influence future migration intentions. We find that a significant number of deportees were long-term settlers in the United States. Many had established work histories and had formed families of their own. These strong social ties in turn influence the likelihood of repeat migration to the United States.
This paper examines the role of migration networks in determining self-selection patterns of Mexico-U.S. migration. A simple theoretical framework shows the impact of networks on migration incentives at different education levels and how this affects the composition of migrant skills. Empirically, we find positive or education-neutral selection in communities with weak migrant networks but negative self-selection in communities with stronger networks. This is consistent with high migration costs driving positive or intermediate self-selection, as advocated by Chiquiar and Hanson (2005), and with negative self-selection being driven by lower returns to education in the United States than in Mexico, as advocated by Borjas (1987). (c) 2010 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The geography Mexican migration to the U.S. has experienced deep transformations in both its origin composition and the destinations chosen by migrants. To date, however, we know little about how shifting migrant origins and destinations may be linked to each another geographically and, ultimately, structurally as relatively similar brands of economic restructuring have been posited to drive the shifts in origins and destinations. In this paper, we describe how old and new migrant networks have combined to fuel the well-documented geographic expansion of Mexican migration. We use data from the 2006 Mexican National Survey of Population Dynamics, a nationally representative survey that for the first time collected information on U.S. state of destination for all household members who had been to the U.S. during the 5 years prior to the survey. We find that the growth in immigration to southern and eastern states is disproportionately fueled by undocumented migration from non-traditional origin regions located in Central and Southeastern Mexico and from rural areas in particular. We argue that economic restructuring in the U.S. and Mexico had profound consequences not only for the magnitude but also for the geography of Mexican migration, opening up new region-to-region flows.
Researchers in the United States and Mexico have variously asserted that return migration from the United States to Mexico increased substantially, remained unchanged, or declined slightly in response to the 2008-2009 U.S. recession and fall 2008 global financial crisis. The present study addresses this debate using microdata from 2005 through 2009 from a large-scale, quarterly Mexican household survey, the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE), after first validating the ENOE against return-migration estimates from a specialist demographic survey, the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID). Declines in annual return-migration flows of up to a third between 2007 and 2009 were seen among the predominantly labor-migrant groups of male migrants and all 18- to 40-year-old migrants with less than a college education; and a decline in total return migration was seen in the fourth quarter of 2008 (immediately after the triggering of the global financial crisis) compared with the fourth quarter of 2007.
This paper examines the role of migration networks in determining self-selection
patterns of Mexico-U.S. migration. We first present a simple theoretical framework
showing how such networks impact on migration incentives at different education
levels and, consequently, how they are likely to affect the expected skill composition
of migration. Using survey data from Mexico, we then show that the probability of
migration is increasing with education in communities with low migrant networks,
but decreasing with education in communities with high migrant networks. This is
consistent with positive self-selection of migrants being driven by high migration
costs, as advocated by Chiquiar and Hanson (2005), and with negative self-selection
of migrants being driven by lower returns to education in the U.S. than in Mexico, as
advocated by Borjas (1987).
This paper analyzes the return migration of foreign-born persons in the United States. The authors argue that return migration may have been planned as part of an optimal life-cycle residential location sequence. Return migration also occurs because immigrants based their initial migration decision on erroneous information about opportunities in the United States. The study uses the 1980 Census and administrative data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Immigrants tend to return to wealthy countries that are not too far from the United States. Moreover, return migration accentuates the type of selection characterizing the immigrant population left in the United States. Copyright 1996 by MIT Press.
I analyze the influence of the economic characteristics of origin area on trip duration for Mexican migrants in the United States. I argue that migrants from economically dynamic areas in Mexico with favorable opportunities for employment and small capital investment have a larger incentive to stay in the United States longer and to withstand the psychic costs of separation from family and friends than do migrants from economically stagnant areas in Mexico, where the productive uses of savings are severely limited. In line with this argument we should expect investment opportunities in migrants' origin areas to be associated positively with migrants' trip duration in the United States. To test this hypothesis I use individual- and household-level data on U.S. migration experience collected in 13 Mexican communities. Evidence from parametric hazards models supports the idea that economic characteristics of origin areas influence the motivations and strategies of Mexican migrants in the United States.
"This paper studies the partial effect of various socio-economic characteristics on the rate of outmigration of the foreign-born from the Canadian population. The data sets used are based on the microdata of the 1971 and 1981 censuses of population. It is found that migrants with high school education have the highest propensity to outmigrate, while those with less than high school education have the lowest. The propensity to outmigrate is positively related to the age of the migrant. Males tend to have a higher propensity to outmigrate, while having a command of official languages reduces the propensity to outmigrate." (SUMMARY IN FRE)
This review culls disparate elements from the theoretical and research literature on human migration to argue for the construction of a theory of migration that simultaneously incorporates multiple levels of analysis within a longitudinal perspective. A detailed review of interconnections among individual behavior, household strategies, community structures, and national political economies indicates that inter-level and inter-temporal dependencies are inherent to the migration process and give it a strong internal momentum. The dynamic interplay between network growth and individual migration labor, migration remittances, and local income distributions all create powerful feedback mechanisms that lead to the cumulative causation of migration. These mechanisms are reinforced and shaped by macrolevel relationships within the larger political economy.
Standard models of labor migration suggest that migration is induced by real income differentials across locations and will, ceteris paribus, serve to reduce those differentials. And yet there is evidence that growing spatial inequality may co-exist with increased migration from poorer to richer areas, at least over certain ranges. At a theoretical level, this raises the question of modeling opposing forces, for convergence and divergence, in a common framework, and identifying the precise conditions under which the tendency for convergence dominates, or is dominated by, the forces for divergence. A conventional route to introducing forces for divergence is to bring agglomeration effects into the standard setup. This paper explores an alternative route, based on a theoretical and empirical proposition of the migration literature, namely, that migration is a selective process. Focusing on skilled migration, the paper demonstrates the different forces in play that make selective migration a force for both divergence and convergence, and characterizes where each set of forces dominates. Finally, it explores the consequences for convergence of combining migration selectivity and agglomeration effects arising from migrant networks. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
We use data from the 2000 Mexican Census to examine how the education and socioeconomic status of Mexican immigrants to the United States compares to that of non-migrants in Mexico. Our primary conclusion is that migrants tend to be less educated than non-migrants. This finding is consistent with the idea that the return to education is higher in Mexico than in the United States, and thus the wage gain to migrating is proportionately smaller for high-educated Mexicans than it is for lower-educated Mexicans. We also find that the degree of negative selection of migrants is stronger in Mexican counties that have a higher return to education.
Migration to the United States increased sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, raising political concerns. The immigrant flow from Mexico, both authorized and unauthorized, was particularly large. Good data would con-tribute to rational discussion of this politically charged issue, but data on immigration, particularly of the unauthorized, are notoriously poor. This article applies residual estimation techniques to data from the 1990 and 2000 population censuses of Mexico and the United States (Mexico-born population) to quantify the intercensal migration flow, arguing that the reasons why unauthorized migrants might avoid enumeration in the United States would not adversely affect data from Mexico. Results suggest that the annual net flow of migrants aged 10 to 80 years from Mexico to the United States averaged between 324,000 and 440,000 between 1990 and 2000. A sensitivity analysis indicates that these results are quite robust (especially those using US data) to likely errors. Copyright 2005 The Population Council, Inc..
International migration is a dynamic process. Having moved into a country of destination, a migrant may, after a while, decide to return to his country of origin. The aggregate rate of return-migration among a group of migrants is studied. Imperfect imformation leading to unrealized expectation of the migrants and changes in rates of return to schooling across countries over time are modelled as factors contributing towards return-migration. Schooling is decomposed into schooling acquired before migration and after migration to take account of its specificity to the country in which it is acquired.
We show that immigrant managers are substantially more likely to hire immigrants than are native managers. The finding holds when comparing establishments in the same 5-digit industry and location, when comparing different establishments within the same firm, when analyzing establishments that change management over time, and when accounting for within-establishment trends in recruitment patterns. The effects are largest for small and owner-managed establishments in the for-profit sector. Separations are more frequent when workers and managers have dissimilar origin, but only before workers become protected by EPL. We also find that native managers are unbiased in their recruitments of former co-workers, suggesting that information deficiencies are important. We find no effects on entry wages. Our findings suggest that a low frequency of immigrant managers may contribute to the observed disadvantages of immigrant workers.