The Changing Patterns of Return Migration from the USA to Mexico and Their Policy Implications

This chapter examines changes in the characteristics of contemporary return migration to Mexico in a period dominated by tighter border controls and rising levels of involuntary, and therefore unplanned, return migration. We use the complete set of individual and household records of the 2005 Population Count of Mexico to establish a reliable benchmark against which to compare previous and subsequent migration patterns observed in the Mexican censuses and counts of 1995 and 2000 and, to a more limited extent, the 2010 Mexican Census. Our data suggest that individuals returning to Mexico today are choosing a different set of destination locales than in the past, in which returnees primarily returned to small rural communities in the Center-West of Mexico. In particular, they are now increasingly attracted to border cities, prosperous small towns, and growing metropolitan areas in Mexico. These attractive destinations for return appear to be less dependent on prior patterns of out-migration than on emerging patterns of economic opportunity within Mexico.