With more migrants moving south than north, Mexico is becoming a country of immigrants.
Mexico’s 1.2 million immigrants represent less than 1 percent of the total population, but their numbers are increasing faster than its neighbors to the north.
From 2000 to 2015, Mexico’s foreign population increased 120 percent, according to a study by the Center for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies of the College of México, or COLMEX.
In the same 15 years, Canada’s immigrant population increased by 42 percent, to 7.8 million; in the U.S., numbers rose by 34 percent, to 46.6 million.
The study also found “no evidence that Mexican migration to the United States will increase in the short or medium terms,” said Silvia Giorguli, a demographer and president of the college.
The number of U.S. citizens, many of Mexican descent, are moving to Mexico in larger numbers than Mexican nationals are moving to the U.S.
“We see a very large increase in the north-south migration, a mobility propelled mostly by U.S. population traveling to Mexico,” Giorguli told Reforma. “Given the sheer scale, visibility and demographic characteristics, this is a completely new phenomenon.”
Source: Reforma
