Mexico

Migrants moving from Mexico to the United States represent the world's largest migration corridor, and the two countries have a long, complicated history with respect to immigration. Previously a country of emigration, Mexico increasingly has been experiencing new roles: as a country of transmigration and increasingly of settlement. The research here examines Mexico's relationship with its vast diaspora in the United States; the economic, insecurity, and other factors that have led to sizeable emigration; and the country's evolving policymaking with respect to migration.

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MPI en Español

MPI publishes its content most on point to migration policies, trends, and immigrant populations in Latin America and Spain in Spanish. You can access all of our Spanish-language content, including reports, commentaries, multimedia, and press releases, here, as well as sign up for updates when we publish Spanish-language content and learn more about our Latin America and Caribbean Migration Portal.

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Articles April 25, 2018 National Guard Heads to Southern Border Amid Differing Reality from Earlier Deployments By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Austin Rose	Reports November 2020 Immigration Data Matters By Jeanne Batalova, Andriy Shymonyak and Michelle Mittelstadt
Articles March 7, 2018 Connecting the Dots: Emerging Migration Trends and Policy Questions in North and Central America By Claudia Masferrer, Víctor M. García-Guerrero, and Silvia E. Giorguli-Saucedo	Articles February 8, 2018 Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States By Jie Zong, Jeanne Batalova, and Jeffrey Hallock
Reports January 2018 Trump’s First Year on Immigration Policy: Rhetoric vs. Reality By Sarah Pierce, Jessica Bolter and Andrew Selee	Multimedia August 31, 2017 La Situación de Cambio Constante entre EE UU y México: Tendencias y Políticas de Migración, Incluyendo Menores No Acompañados
Reports July 2017 Strengthening Mexico’s Protection of Central American Unaccompanied Minors in Transit By Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas	Multimedia May 4, 2017 Recognizing Changing Enforcement and Crossing Trends at the U.S.-Mexico Border

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Reports April 2008 A New Citizenship Bargain for the Age of Mobility? Citizenship Requirements in Europe and North America By Randall Hansen	Reports April 2008 Dual Citizenship in the Age of Mobility By Thomas Faist and Jürgen Gerdes
Fact Sheets September 2007 Variable Impacts: State-level Analysis of the Slowdown in the Growth of Remittances to Mexico By Aaron Terrazas	Policy Briefs June 2007 Leveraging Remittances for Development By Dilip Ratha
Policy Briefs April 2007 Circular Migration and Development: Trends, Policy Routes, and Ways Forward By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza and Kathleen Newland	Reports September 2006 Remittances and Development: Trends, Impacts, and Policy Options, A Review of the Literature By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza
Reports September 2006 From A Zero-Sum to a Win-Win Scenario? Literature Review on Circular Migration By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza	Reports June 2006 America's Emigrants: U.S. Retirement Migration to Mexico and Panama By David Dixon, Julie Murray and Julia Gelatt

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Feature

February 1, 2007

Migration and Development: Lessons from the Mexican Experience

Mexico has often been cited as a successful example of the positive relationship between migration and development. But Raúl Delgado-Wise and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo show why Mexico's model is unsustainable.

Top Ten

December 1, 2006

All about the Border

The border between the U.S. and Mexico and the water dividing Europe and North Africa continue to be the world's main fronts in the fight against illegal immigration.

Feature

September 1, 2006

Mexico's Presidential Election: Implications for U.S. Immigration Policy

Both of the leading presidential candidates said during the campaign that Mexico needed to create more and better jobs to stem migration - but their approaches to the problem differ. Susan Gzesh of the University of Chicago reports.

Feature

September 1, 2006

America's Emigrants: U.S. Retirement Migration to Mexico and Panama

Little is known about Americans who have retired to Latin America. MPI's David Dixon, Julie Murray, and Julia Gelatt examine the U.S. retiree population in Mexico and Panama by looking at census and visa data as well as by interviewing American retirees in various communities.

Feature

June 1, 2006

The U.S.-Mexico Border

With so much political attention focused on the southern border, the MPI staff has updated this guide to regional population numbers, border crossings, border enforcement, and the economic ties between the United States and Mexico.

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Reports

April 2021

Sentando las bases para una cooperación regional: Política migratoria y capacidad institucional en México y Centroamérica

Los países de la región que se extiende desde Panamá hasta la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México enfrentan una importante oportunidad para fortalecer la cooperación en materia de migración. Este informe examina los pilares fundamentales que pueden sentar las bases de la cooperación regional. Además de evaluar la capacidad institucional, los marcos legales y las políticas migratorias, también identifica áreas clave en el desarrollo de capacidades.

Reports

April 2021

Laying the Foundation for Regional Cooperation: Migration Policy & Institutional Capacity in Mexico and Central America

The countries in the region that stretches from Panama to the U.S.-Mexico border face an important opportunity to strengthen cooperation on migration. This report examines key building blocks that can lay the foundation for regional cooperation. In addition to assessing institutional capacity, legal frameworks, and migration policies, it also identifies key areas for capacity-building efforts.

Reports

April 2021

COVID-19 and the State of Global Mobility in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically curtailed cross-border mobility in 2020, affecting travelers and migrants around the world. This report presents a first-of-its-kind analysis of the many thousands of travel restrictions and border closures imposed by governments to curb the spread of the virus. It examines how these policies evolved, varied across countries and regions, and what these trends may mean for the future of international movement.

Commentaries

March 2021

Hampered by the Pandemic: Unaccompanied Child Arrivals Increase as Earlier Preparedness Shortfalls Limit the Response

The increase in unaccompanied child arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border in February and March has led to backups and overcrowding at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities ill-suited to house children, in part due to earlier significant reductions in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelter capacity during 2020. This commentary explores preparedness shortfalls and the options the Biden administration has moving forward.

Policy Briefs

February 2021

Rewiring Migrant Returns and Reintegration after the COVID-19 Shock

Migrant returns and reintegration have been the subject of intense international debate in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has added an extra layer of complexity as millions of migrants have been expelled or returned voluntarily. This policy brief explores the effects of the pandemic on migrant returns, reception, and reintegration, and how countries of origin and destination can improve their policies and partnerships going forward, with a focus on sustainable reintegration.

Reports

December 2020

Construcción de un nuevo sistema migratorio regional: Redefiniendo la cooperación entre Estados Unidos con México y Centroamérica

Un desafío y una oportunidad clave que enfrentará la administración de Joe Biden será cómo abordar la cooperación regional en relación a la migración. Este informe explora la evolución de la movilidad entre los Estados Unidos, México y Centroamérica y presenta una estrategia para ampliar las oportunidades en cuanto a la migración legal, abordar necesidades humanitarias, fortalecer la aplicación de la ley y mitigar algunas de las fuerzas que provocan la emigración.

Reports

November 2020

Building a New Regional Migration System: Redefining U.S. Cooperation with Mexico and Central America

Addressing regional cooperation around migration will be among the immigration challenges and opportunities facing the incoming Biden administration. This report examines how movement between the United States, Mexico, and Central America has evolved in recent decades, and lays out a four-part strategy to expand opportunities for legal migration, address humanitarian protection needs, improve enforcement, and mitigate some of the forces driving people to emigrate.

Reports

November 2020

Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19

Around the world, governments are grappling with how to combat the COVID-19 pandemic while also managing the economic fallout of policies put in place to stop the virus’ spread. Global migration has dropped sharply amid border closures and travel restrictions. This reflection takes stock of policy responses to the pandemic thus far, and of the challenges (and some opportunities) on the horizon for migration systems, labor markets, and integration of newcomers.

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