Mexicans’ Migration Intentions in an Era of Heightened U.S. Enforcement

• In Event: 4349 - Migratory Aspirations: How Aspiring Migrants and Refugees Decide to Leave

Abstract

Changes in U.S. immigration enforcement combined with sustained deportation rates around 400,000 per year contributed to a surge in Mexican return migration during 2005-2014. Meanwhile, rates of undocumented migration among return migrants have fallen close to zero. In this context, I draw on 44 in-depth interviews with Mexican return migrants in rural sending communities to explore how contemporary return migrants imagine the prospect of a future U.S. migration and to identify factors that motivate return among voluntary returnees. Among my respondents, 19/44 initially expressed intentions to re-migrate, but upon further probing, only three said that they would re-migrate without legal authorization. Their reticence toward unauthorized migration reflects a collective imagination of U.S.-migration that is shaped by fear of apprehension and detention at the hands of U.S. immigration enforcement. In a border-restricted world where migrants increasingly recognize return as a permanent move, I found that ties to left-behind family members were the most important motivation for returning home. My interviews suggest that many migrants cross a threshold after which the psychic costs of on-going family separation outweigh the economic benefits of remaining abroad. In concluding, I discuss the implications of returnees’ changing migration imaginations for the future of undocumented migration.

Author

• Joshua Thomas Wassink, Princeton University