Migration, electoral participation and economic contribution of Mexican migrants in their country of origin

Abstract

Over 11 million Mexicans live abroad, most of them (98 percent) in the United States. Between 2001 and 2010 more than one million 600 thousand Mexicans went to live in that country. Many Mexican migrants participate in their country of origin through individual or collective remittances and a very small percentage participate politically through the postal vote. This article shows the contrasting relationship between participating politically and sending remittances, using data for each State: Collective remittances nearly tripled while the votes of Mexicans living abroad in the presidential elections grew by only one-third. Only one thousand more votes arrived from the United States in 2012 than in 2006. The ratio between the number of migrants, family and collective remittances and electoral participation shows no clear pattern. A case in point is the Federal District: in this region the votes nearly doubled between 2006 and 2012, although it is neither the place where most migrants leave from, nor the area that receives the most family and collective remittances. Hypotheses about heterogeneous patterns observed in each State between economic participation and electoral participation are presented.