An Analysis of High Skilled and Low Skilled Migration from Mexico to the US, 1970-2010

• In Event: 2407 - Theorizing Migration Flows

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the trends and predictors of high skilled Mexican migration to the US, and whether they differ from low skilled migration. I used retrospective life history data from the Mexican Migration Project to (1) analyze the probability of a first migration from Mexico to the US for highly skilled Mexicans relative to their low skilled counterparts and to (2) examine the role of individual and contextual factors in predicting both migration flows. Although data from the US indicate a rise in the volume of highly skilled Mexican immigrants, my findings suggest that the growth in the stock of high skilled migrants is likely related to the rising educational level of the Mexican population rather (i.e., more supply of college-educated Mexicans) rather than to a higher propensity of migration among Mexican professionals. In terms of predictors of migration, at the individual level, high skilled migration was primarily influenced by migration-related social capital whereas low skilled migration was impacted by demographic background and human, social, and physical capital variables. At the contextual level, low skilled migration was associated with economic, labor, and security conditions in Mexico, as well as with labor and immigration policy conditions in the US. That is, low skilled migration was shaped by both push and pull factors. In contrast, adverse economic conditions in Mexico (e.g., peso devaluation, real interest rates) acted as push factors that encouraged the out-migration of highly skilled Mexicans; however, conditions in the US did not seem to “pull” them.

Author

• Gabriela León-Pérez, Virginia Commonwealth University