Most Mexicans Not Interested in Moving to United States

Public-opinion research of people in Mexico shows that most people there aren’t interested in moving to the United States.

According to surveys from Pew Research, 61 percent of Mexicans said they wouldn’t move to the United States even if they had the means or opportunity to do so.

Thirty-five percent said they would. Of those 1,000 people surveyed, only 20 percent said they’d move to the United States without authorization.

Pew also surveyed people from El Salvador, where most people said they do want to live in the United States. Thirty percent said they’re move to the United States if they had authorization, and 28 percent said they would move to the U.S. without authorization.

Pew also asked people from both countries whether life is better for people who move to the United States. Mexicans weren’t so sure. Although 47 percent said life’s better in the U.S., 18 percent said it’s worse, 29 percent said it’s not better or worse, and 6 percent said they didn’t know — so you could say most people said it’s not definitively better in the U.S. More than 60 percent of Salvadorans said life in the U.S. is better.

Despite this, people in both countries said there were huge problems there. In Mexico, 81 percent of people said crime is a “very big problem,” 71 percent said cartel violence is, and 70 percent said illegal drugs are.

In El Salvador, 90 percent or more of the people polled thought all three of those issues were very big problems in that country.

Check out all of the findings on Pew’s website, which includes many more insights into the issues facing the people of both Mexico and El Salvador.

UPDATE 1:21 p.m.: P.S., one of our colleagues pointed out, accurately, that 20 percent of Mexico is still a lot of people.

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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.