Family and Nostalgia Draw Large Majority of Immigrants Back to Mexico Jim Forsyth - WOAI
go to original January 16, 2014

The U.S. is becoming less of an attractive destination for illegal immigrants, according to a new report by San Antonio based organization. Out of 600 undocumented workers polled, 89% went back to Mexico voluntarily. (KENS5)

More of the study’s key findings can be found at MATT.org. (PDF)

Research released this week by a binational organization concludes that the flow of Mexican immigrants into the United States has slowed to the point where more Mexican citizens are returning to Mexico today than are coming northward.

"This information confirms that this flow has considerably diminished, and there is an important group of people going back to Mexico on their own," Aracely Garcia-Granados, Executive Director of the San Antonio based organization Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, told 1200 WOAI news.  She calls this 'the untold half of the immigration story.'

"We call it the 'end of an era' because we are not receiving this tsunami of people continuing to arrive from Mexico."

MATT and the Washington based Wilson Center reported that 1.4 million Mexicans returned to Mexico between 2005 and 2010, and the Wilson Center's Miguel Salazar says that number has likely accelerated since 2010.

"I think that we are likely to see sustained numbers right at those numbers," he said.  "Illegal migration from Mexico into the U.S. will continue, but we are actually seeing more migrants returning to Mexico than we see coming here."

MATT, which is also based in Mexico City, interviewed some 600 former migrants in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and determined that 89% of them decided on their own to return to Mexico, despite the general belief that most returned through deportation.

Read the rest at WOAI

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