Despite increasing migration, money sent home to Mexico is almost all spent on bare necessities for migrants' families, with little left over for investment that could create new jobs, according to a government report released on Friday.
Levels of migration and remittances sent home by workers abroad have both risen in recent years, and that growth rate is accelerating, said Elena Zuniga, the head of Mexico's National Population Council
The number of undocumented migrants leaving for the US grew by 48 percent in the period 1993-1997, 63 percent from 1998 to 2001, and rose by 77 percent from 2001 to last year, Zuniga said in a news conference at the presidential residence, Los Pinos.
Just as importantly, the amount of time undocumented migrants stay in the US has grown, from an average of 6.9 months in the 1998-2001 period to 11.2 months between 2001 and last year.
Tighter border controls make it harder for migrants to make shorter, multiple trips.
"The increasingly strict border control ... has the effect of increasing undocumented migration [to the US] and turning it into a more permanent migration," Zuniga said.
US and Mexican officials had long hoped that that rising tide could help develop businesses in Mexico so people wouldn't have to emigrate.
Treasury officials say remittances grew to US$16.6 billion last year, a 24 percent increase over 2003 and second only to Mexico's oil income. State and federal officials have designed programs to encourage investment by migrants.
But a new study by the population council shows the average amounts sent home are so small they basically buy only food, clothing and health care.
Less than 10 percent of remittances are used for investment or savings, the study found.
"This spending, in reality, constitutes an investment in human capital, in health and education, among other areas," the council said.
However, the 1.43 million households that received remittances last year -- about one in every 18 Mexican families -- got an average of only US$2,916 per year from workers abroad, according to the study.
"These households use the majority of their income from remittances to satisfy basic needs," the report stated.
The report said that, starting with the economic and financial crisis of 1995, growing numbers of families "used migration as a response to the deteriorating living conditions in Mexico."
In 2000, an estimated 355,000 Mexicans migrated to the US and by last year that figure reached 395,000.
The number of households in Mexico receiving remittances has more than doubled since 1994, when only 665,000 families got payments from abroad.
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