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Title: Violence in Mexico, Return Intentions, and the Integration of Mexican Migrants in the US

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2023

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Abstract: This paper studies how violence due to the war on drugs in Mexico affects the social and economic integration of Mexican migrants in the United States. I combine detailed administrative data on Mexican migrants' municipal origins with US Census data on their naturalization, intermarriage, and economic behavior. To instrument for violence in Mexican municipalities, I use the interaction of the prewar geographic distribution of drug trade organizations within Mexico and cocaine supply shocks originating in Colombia. Focusing on migrants who arrived in the US before the war on drugs, I find that violence significantly increases their propensity to naturalize and marry US citizens, particularly naturalized Mexicans. The marriage effects are larger for recent and less educated migrants and are more pronounced in areas where migratory networks are concentrated. However, I find no evidence of significant changes in labor market behavior or human capital accumulation. Overall, these results reflect a decrease in migrants' intentions to return to Mexico. Analysis using the Mexican Census suggests a reduction in return migration flows to municipalities experiencing heightened violence, which supports this mechanism.

Url: https://zaiourreem.github.io/reemzaiour.com/Zaiour_JMP.pdf

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Authors: Zaiour, Reem

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS International

Topics: Crime and Deviance, Migration and Immigration

Countries: Mexico