Current Trends in Mexican Migration (Report‪)‬

In the summer of 2005, with the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) Voluntary Repatriation Program in full swing, (1) the U.S. Border Patrol operating in the Arizona desert detained 20,590 people, all of whom were deported to their places of origin. Of this total, 15,051 were men, 3,017 were women, and 2,522 were under the age of eighteen (Roman 2005). According to Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM), most of these deportees were from the states of Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Puebla. This information captures many of the current trends in Mexican migration, which, according to scholars, is characterized by the diversification of migration demographics and by a shift in flows towards the Sonora-Arizona border. Migrants, moreover, are now likely to co me from states that previously were fairly stable demographically, such as Veracruz, on Mexico's Gulf coast. Finally, although the data remain somewhat unclear, women seem to represent a major component in the migratory phenomenon. Today's Mexican migrant population is far more socially and culturally heterogeneous than in the past, and represents a greater diversity of circumstances leading up to the decision to move north. Such differences are strongly rooted in regional practices and bring changes in the cultural dynamics of host communities in both northwest Mexico and the United States. The current era of migration has its origins in rising levels of unemployment; (2) in the ongoing crisis in the agricultural sector--e.g., the abrupt downturn in Veracruz's coffee and sugarcane sectors, and drought in several states, such as Zacatecas; (3) as well as in generally increasing poverty levels.