Migration from Mexico, mainly to the United States, has fallen dramatically as fewer Mexicans leave their country to look for work abroad amid a global economic downturn, the government said Thursday.
The net outflow of Mexicans – both legal and illegal – declined by over 50 percent in the 12 months ending in August 2008, compared the same period a year earlier, said the Eduardo Sojo, president of the board of Mexico’s National Statistics, Geography and Information Institute.
The number of returning Mexicans was roughly the same over the two periods, declining slightly to 450,000 by late 2008, from 478,000 in the 2007 period. But the number leaving Mexico fell sharply to 654,000 from 933,000.