Public Use Data on Mexican Migration

Mexico is the single most important source of both documented and undocumented migration to the United States. The now twenty-year long Mexican Migration Project (MMP) is a unique source of data that enables researchers to track patterns and processes of contemporary Mexican immigration to the United States. The project is a multi-disciplinary research effort that generates public use data on the characteristics and behavior of Mexican migrants. Every year, the project collects data from representative samples of households in four to six strategically selected Mexican communities. Each Mexican survey is supplemented with a survey of individuals from the same community who have migrated to the U.S. With this award, the Foundation will offer interim support to Douglas Massey and Jose Durand during a short-term funding gap for the MMP. The new data gathering will focus on the border and central regions, which in recent years have become important sources for migration to the U.S. In addition, the next wave of research will incorporate new measures, including health and environmental conditions in the sending regions.