More Mexicans leaving U.S. than entering the country, says Pew Research Center analysis

For the first time in 50 years, the number of Mexicans leaving the U.S. is greater than the number entering the country, says analysis by the Pew Research Center, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera reports for the organization. One million Mexicans left the U.S. for Mexico from 2009 to 2014, compared to 870,000 that entered the U.S. from Mexico, a difference of 130,000. The numbers are estimates because no official counts are kept, but officials say most left of their own accord, with only 14 percent being deported.

Researchers say the main reason Mexicans are leaving the U.S. is to reunite with family members, stricter immigration laws and the slow recovery of U.S. jobs after the end of the Great Recession, Gonzalez-Barrera writes. "Mexico is the largest birth country among the U.S. foreign-born population—28 percent of all U.S. immigrants came from there in 2013. Mexico also is the largest source of U.S. unauthorized immigrants." (Pew graphic)

"Between 1965 and 2015, more than 16 million Mexican immigrants migrated to the U.S.—more than from any other country," Gonzalez-Barrera writes. "In 1970, fewer than 1 million Mexican immigrants lived in the U.S. By 2000, that number had grown to 9.4 million, and by 2007 it reached a peak at 12.8 million. Since then, the Mexican-born population has declined, falling to 11.7 million in 2014, as the number of new arrivals to the U.S. from Mexico declined significantly; meanwhile, the reverse flow to Mexico from the U.S. is now higher. The decline in the number of Mexican immigrants residing in the U.S. has been mostly due to a drop of more than 1 million unauthorized immigrants from Mexico from a peak of 6.9 million in 2007 to an estimated 5.6 million in 2014."