PixabayWhile Donald Trump is still rambling on about building a bloody wall it seems if he looked at recent statistics, he might just change his mind.
For decades Mexican immigrants have made their way north towards the United States, but in recent years that’s all changed. In fact, data has revealed more people have done the exact opposite.
Mexicans and US-born immigrants are moving from their homes in America to Mexico in huge numbers, and it has been happening for quite a few years.
GettyBetween 2009 and 2014, 1 million Mexicans, along with their US born children, headed south back to Mexico, according to the 2014 Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics. During that time, just 870,000 Mexicans migrated to the United States, according to US census data.
Last month, it was estimated that there is at least 799,000 US-born people living in Mexico, according to the country’s statistics institute. It’s recognised to probably be an underestimate, but, and even then, it is four times more than the number in 1990, The Washington Post reports.
But why are so many people travelling back to their native Mexico, sometimes decades after they made the move north?
GettyOne of the main reasons is thought to be the US’ slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, according to the Pew Research Centre.
As well as that, Mexicans are becoming increasingly optimistic about the quality of life they can pursue south of the border.
A 2015 survey by Pew found 48 per cent of Mexican adults believed they would have a better life in the US, while 33 per cent of adults said they believed it would be neither better nor worse than their life in Mexico, which was 10 per cent higher than results found in 2007.
The migration trend has had a positive effect on the Mexican economy too, with American immigrants transforming neighbourhoods and schools.
PA ImagesMexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard told The Post:
It’s beginning to become a very important cultural phenomenon. Like the Mexican community in the United States.
What’s ironic is that the majority of Americans living in Mexico are illegal immigrants or have errors in their paperwork, according to statistics from 2015, conducted by the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
PexelsBut, unlike Trump and his desperation to crack down on illegal immigrants in the US, threatening to deport those who don’t have green cards, the Mexican government doesn’t seem too concerned with the issue.
Ebrard shrugged off the situation, telling the post:
We have never pressured them to have their documents in order.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.