Study Finds Rise in Mexican Immigrants Seeking U.S. Homes

New research is challenging long-held assumptions that most Mexican immigrants are uneducated single young male farm laborers who are working in the United States temporarily while supporting families in Mexico, according to an article in the current edition of Science magazine.

In fact, the authors state, many Mexican immigrants plan to stay in the United States permanently, many gravitate toward manufacturing, service-sector and other jobs in Los Angeles and other urban areas, growing numbers are women and many have considerable education.

“Mexican immigration to the United States can no longer be characterized by the persistent image of the Mexican immigrant as a temporary worker staying here for a short period of time and leaving his or her family behind, if it ever could be so characterized,” stated the article, which was written by Georges Vernez and David Ronfeldt, analysts with the RAND Corp., the Santa Monica-based think tank.

The RAND researchers also found that recent Mexican immigrants are more educated than their countrymen of earlier generations, but they still lag considerably behind U.S.-born residents in educational levels, contributing to a disproportionate presence in low-paying jobs.

The researchers’ conclusions--the latest in a number of studies pointing to the heterogenous nature of Mexican immigration--underline a growing consensus among scholars, U.S. officials and others that the northward movement of the Mexican population is a multifaceted phenomenon that does not adhere to any stereotype.

And the findings are supported by the experience in the San Diego area, the prime entry point for illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. There, officials say, women and children now compose about 20% of the more than 1,000 undocumented foreigners arrested each day. The figure was 10% in 1978, said Ted Swofford, a supervisory agent with the U.S. Border Patrol.

“People are increasingly coming to work in non-seasonal, full-time jobs in urban areas throughout the country,” Swofford said. “They’re bringing their families with them, and they have no intention of leaving any time soon.”

The findings, researchers say, suggest that the seemingly intractable problem of illegal immigration will continue to resist easy solutions. Analysts note that those who arrive in the United States with the intention of remaining permanently--the vast majority of them illegal immigrants--regularly send for spouses and children, and expand their families here, making it less likely that they will return to their homeland.

The RAND researchers do not directly criticize U.S. immigration policy--which relies heavily on posting of U.S. Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border and other enforcement techniques--but one of the co-authors says the findings indicate that alternative steps may be needed to deal with illicit immigration.

The magazine article, Ronfeldt said, brings together a body of recent research on immigration issues. For example, scholars have found that there are increasing numbers of women in the Mexican immigrant pool and that only 15% or less of Mexican immigrants find work in fields.

Mexican immigration has a particular impact in California, which is increasingly the desired destination of immigrants from Mexico, scholars say. More than half of all Mexican immigrants--both legal and illegal--are destined for California, according to data compiled by Wayne A. Cornelius, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego.

Recent census data shows that California’s Latino population, in part spurred by new immigration, is rising rapidly. Demographers say current population trends indicate that California’s non-Latino white population may be in the minority by the end of the century.

Nationwide, the RAND analysts estimated that by 1988 there were more than 12 million people of Mexican origin--both immigrants and U.S.-born--living here.

The RAND authors reached no conclusion on the contentious issue of whether immigrants “pay their way” in taxes and other contributions for the public services that they use, especially education. Pro-immigrant advocates say that the newcomers contribute more than their share, but some critics have charged that the influx of new immigrants puts undue demands on the economies of communities with large immigrant populations.

The RAND researchers studied the issue, but could come to no solid conclusion, Ronfeldt said.