Migration from Mexico to the United States

Wages and jobs pull workers north

A worker in farming, construction, meat processing or hotels can earn much more in the United States than at home, and employers there have long wanted labour they cannot recruit locally. Seasonal crop work depends on Mexican hands in particular, and the legal seasonal farm work visa route issued 285,800 visas to Mexicans in 2024. The wage gap between the two countries has never closed enough to remove the pull.

Family and established communities keep the route open

Migration follows people who have already gone. Mexican communities in Texas, California, Illinois and Arizona give new arrivals somewhere to stay, work to walk into and help with paperwork, so moving carries far less risk than a move to an unfamiliar country would. With 10.6 million Mexican born people in the United States by 2022, many sending towns have relatives at the other end, and money and advice travel back along the same chain.

Weak rural incomes and insecurity push people out

Small farms in central and southern Mexico struggle against imported grain, and rural wages have stayed low while the cost of living has not. In several states, violence linked to organised crime adds a push that has little to do with jobs. Both pressures fall hardest on young adults, who are the people most able to travel and the ones employers on the other side want.

Primary

• The Mexican born population of the United States rose from fewer than 1 million in 1970 to 10.6 million by 2022.
• Mexicans became the largest immigrant group in the country, 23 percent of all immigrants in 2022.
• About 4.3 million people born in Mexico were living in the United States without authorisation in 2023.

Secondary

• Growth in the flow stalled after the late 2000s, and recent arrivals at the border come mostly from countries further south.
• Mexico's share of the unauthorised population in the United States fell to 30 percent in 2023 as other origins grew.
• Sending villages in central Mexico have lost working age adults and now lean on money sent from abroad.

Social

• Families are split across the boundary, often for years, with children left in Mexico with grandparents.
• Mexican language, food and festivals have shaped cities across the southern and western United States.
• People living without authorisation avoid reporting crime or seeking health care in case it exposes them.

Economic

• Remittances to Mexico reached 61,791 million US dollars in 2025, worth 3.4 percent of national income.
• Crop farming, construction and food processing in the United States lean on Mexican labour, and 285,800 Mexicans held seasonal farm work visas in 2024.
• Mexico loses young workers it has fed, schooled and trained, while the United States gains them ready to work.

Environmental

• Fencing and patrol roads along the boundary cut across desert habitat and block the movement of wildlife.
• People crossing remote desert in Arizona and Texas leave litter and discarded water containers along the trails.
• Fast growth of border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez has strained water supply and air quality.

Immediate

• United States Border Patrol agents detain people who cross between official ports of entry and return them to Mexico.
• Mexican consulates in the United States issue identity documents and provide legal help to nationals who are detained.
• Shelters run by churches and charities on the Mexican side house people waiting to cross or recently returned.

Long term

• The boundary, which extends 1,954 miles, is watched with fencing, cameras, sensors, aircraft and a large patrol force.
• Legal seasonal farm work visas have widened the lawful route, and 285,800 went to Mexicans in 2024.
• Mexico has put schooling, cash transfer payments and factory investment into sending states to give people a reason to stay.
• Cheap electronic transfers carry remittances home, and they were worth 3.4 percent of Mexico's national income in 2025.