More immigrants from Mexico are leaving the US than coming into the nation, said a report published on Thursday by the Pew Research Center, a finding that indicates the end of the largest wave of immigration from a single country in US history.
The shift is the first time since immigration from Mexico began to rise in the 1970s that fewer Mexicans went into the US than returned to Mexico, the Pew report found. The reversal is primarily the result of a steep drop in Mexicans entering the US.
While the border debate, especially among the Republican candidates for the presidential nomination, has focused on extending walls and expanding other enforcement measures, the Pew report indicates that stepped-up border measures under the Obama administration have already helped significantly in reducing illegal crossings by Mexicans.
“We know that crossings are definitely down, and we also know it is much more difficult and costly to cross now than it used to be,” said Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, a Pew research associate who is the author of the report.
The slow US recovery after the 2008 recession, particularly in construction and other low-paying jobs where many Mexicans had worked, is also a factor, she said.
Using census data from both the US and Mexico, the Pew report found that from 2009 to last year, slightly more than 1 million Mexicans and their families — including about 100,000 children younger than 5 who were US citizens born in the US — returned to live in Mexico. In the same period, an estimated 870,000 Mexicans went to the US, resulting in an outflow of about 140,000.
“We think Mexican migration is definitely in a new phase, and it will not return to the levels it once had,” Gonzalez-Barrera said.
Last year, the number of Mexicans caught crossing the border illegally dropped to 230,000, according to official figures, the lowest level since 1971.
The end of the influx has led to a decline in the numbers of Mexican immigrants in the US, Pew reported, to 11.7 million last year, down from a peak of 12.8 million in 2007. Most of the decline can be attributed to a drop in the number of Mexicans here illegally, to 5.6 million last year from an estimated 6.9 million in 2007.
Mexicans are by far the largest nationality among unauthorized immigrants.
US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has said that Mexican immigration poses dangers for the US, on Thursday called once again on Twitter for a “big and beautiful wall” across the southwest border.
E-mails to the Trump campaign seeking comment on the Pew report were not returned.
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