Between 2005 and 2010, more than 1 million undocumented Mexican immigrants into the US returned to Mexico, many for good. That number is about triple the number of undocumented immigrants who returned to Mexico between 2000 and 2004.
What changed is the US economy. At the height of the US financial crisis in 2008-2009, the estimated number of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US fell from 12 million to 11 million. According to The Christian Science Monitor, since then
Mexicans without documents aren’t migrating at rates to replace the loss, creating a net zero balance for the first time in 50 years.
The implications for US agriculture, much of which depends on the cheap labor provided by undocumented workers, and on the Mexican economy are profound. Mexico has long depended on the billions of dollars sent back to the country from the undocumented workers as a form of social welfare. Those days are ending and the government may have to pick up the slack.
Adding to the decline in immigration are tougher border security, more violence, and the increasingly hostile state anti-immigration laws.
Paul Ausick
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