The Feminization Of Mexican Migration To The U.S.

Until the late 1980s, Mexican migrants to the U.S. were almost exclusively men. Today, however, women account for 30-to-45 percent of Mexican immigrants. Why? Tighter border controls caused many undocumented migrants to minimize crossings back to Mexico and prolong their stays in the U.S., and an amnesty program that granted permanent residency, both leading the men to bring their wives and mothers.

In an effort to curb undocumented migration, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 inadvertently brought about a dramatic shift in the sex composition of Mexican migrants to the U.S. Before the mid 1980s, men clearly dominated Mexico-U.S. migration flows. Data analysis by university researchers shows that a major change in the demography of this immigrant group is now underway: women migrants are increasing in numbers and in their proportional presence.

“This new data trend is quite surprising and has all sorts of serious implications,” says Katharine Donato, an associate professor in sociology at Rice University and in behavioral sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health.

“The fact that almost half of all Latino children in the U.S. live in households where at least one parent is foreign born has to be related to this new trend of more women among immigrants from Mexico — the largest immigrant group in this country.”

In a study titled “Women and Men on the Move: Undocumented Border Crossing,” Donato and Evelyn Patterson, a graduate student in demography at the University of Pennsylvania and former Rice student from class of 2002, examined current data on border crossings from Mexico to the U.S. and found that considerably more Mexican women migrated to this country since 1986 than in the past. They also discovered that their patterns and processes of border crossing are markedly different than those of male Mexican migrants.

According to Donato, two primary factors that led to these increasing numbers of female Mexican migrants were stronger border enforcement measures by the INS and an amnesty provision within the Immigrant Reform and Control Act. Tighter border controls caused many undocumented migrants to minimize crossings back to Mexico and prolong their stays in the U.S.

“Fewer returned to Mexico, so there was a sudden increase in the size of the undocumented population,” Donato explains.

At the same time, the amnesty program granted permanent residency to about three million people, 1.8 million of whom were Mexican and mostly men. They, in turn, eventually arranged for legal entry for their wives and mothers. Today, Mexican women account for 30 to 45 percent of all Mexican immigrants in the U.S., up from 10 percent in 1980.

Referring to this phenomenon as the “feminization of migration,” Donato and Patterson describe a different experience and mode of migration among women than had occurred among their husbands and sons who generally migrated ahead of them.

“When women migrate, Mexican families attempt to safeguard traditional gender roles by controlling the women’s trips and seeking greater protection for them,” Donato says.

“Mexican women, for example, tend to use professional guides. And if they use these guides, they’re less likely to be apprehended than men.”

Data showed that the likelihood of females being arrested was 12 percent on their first trip and 14 percent on later trips, while the probability for men was 29 percent in either case.

Other gender differences were uncovered with regard to the age at which a man or woman made their first trip and subsequent trips, the number of trips they had taken and their geographic origins. On average, female Mexican migrants were found to be older than their male counterparts. Women reported being 29 years old on their first trip and 39 on later trips, while men were 27 and 33 respectively on their first and subsequent trips. As of their most recent trip, men claimed they had taken a little more than four prior trips, while women reported just two trips.

The researchers also found some similarities between male and female migrants. Regardless of their gender, migrants under 45 years, who left Mexico in 1992 and were living in the Mexican states of Nayarit or Zacatecas at the time of the study, were more likely to cross with others than alone. On the other hand, migrants living in Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí or in one of the two U.S. barrios were notably less likely to have crossed the border using a professional guide.

“We found that both men and women tend to migrate alone the older and more experienced they are,” says Donato. “And, as migrants age, their chances of being arrested drop significantly.”

Data for this study were drawn from border-crossing histories compiled for heads of households participating in the Mexican Migration Project, an ongoing multidisciplinary study of Mexican migration to the United States (see http://mmp.opr.princeton.edu/ ) and for heads and spouses in the Health and Migration Project (see http://www.mexmah.com ).

Directed by Donato and Shawn Kanaiaupuni from Kamehameha Schools, the Health and Migration Project collects and analyzes longitudinal data on the health consequences of Mexico-U.S. migration through surveys with approximately 2,000 households in eleven communities in Mexico and two urban barrios in the U.S.

A member of Rice’s sociology faculty since 2000, Donato has written about a number of issues related to Mexican immigration to the U.S., including the ways in which social networks affect the health of Mexican families and the consequences of Mexican immigration for new U.S. destination areas. Donato’s study of immigrants from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic was the first to document that today’s labor market conditions for those newer immigrant groups are the same or worse than Mexican migrants have experienced since Congress passed the IRCA in 1986.

For more information at http://www.rice.edu