… That’s the conclusion of a Pew Hispanic Center analysis, which may prove to be good news for those immigrants who have been able to remain here. (Here’s the LA Times story.)
The center figures this net zero migration has probably been true since 2007 and is due to a variety of factors: the U.S. recession, increased deportations, threats to immigrants along the border, and others.
In conversations I’ve had with immigrants, many are saying their friends and relatives are not coming north. (Folks I’ve interviewed aren’t returning home, either.) The cost is quite high — both in cash as well as in dangers faced, as drug traffickers and criminals have learned to use immigrants as revenue streams, kidnapping them and charging their families even more than they’ve already paid.
Meanwhile, the potential payoff of a job up here is dramatically lower.
All of which may mean that those who do remain here might look to an improvement in their standard of living, as the greatest competition to a Mexican immigrant, particularly one with few skills, no English and no papers, is another just like himself.
Then there’s this — a story in La Jornada (thanks to Keith Dannemiller for the tip) saying that flows to refuges for migrants in southern Mexico have doubled, especially from places such as Veracruz, Chiapas and Tabasco, due largely to crises in Central American countries.
Interesting times….
