Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Between 2010 and 2015, more than one million Mexican migrants returned to Mexico from the United States. US return migrants are disadvantaged in terms of health compared to stayers in the destination country and compared to nonmigrants. However, research has rarely considered whether this also holds for internal return migrants. In addition, we know little about heterogeneity in the health of return migrants, particularly whether health differs depending on whether individuals migrated with family members or not. Using representative panel data for the Mexican population from the Mexican Family Life Survey, this article makes several contributions. First, a mental health penalty is found for both US return migrants and internal return migrants compared to nonmigrants in Mexico. Second, I find health disadvantages for return migrants who migrated alone or alone with a child. Conversely, migration with a partner is not significantly related to mental health. A strength of the analytical approach is that longitudinal data, and more specifically individual fixed-effects models and coarsened exact matching, are used to account for important parts of selection into migration. Overall, this article shows that who individuals migrate with is strongly related to mental health after migrants return home.

Keywords

return migration mental health family international migration internal migration

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andrews

. 2023. Banished Men. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Arenas

Goldman

Pebley

A. R.

Teruel

. 2015. “Return Migration to Mexico: Does Health Matter?” Demography 52 (6): 1853–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-015-0429-7 .

Arenas

Yahirun

Teruel

Rubalcava

Gaitán-Rossi

. 2021. “Gender, Family Separation, and Negative Emotional Well-Being among Recent Mexican Migrants.” Journal of Marriage and Family 83 (5): 1401–19.

Azose

J. J.

Raftery

A. E.

. 2019. “Estimation of Emigration, Return Migration, and Transit Migration Between All Pairs of Countries.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (1): 116–22. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1722334116 .

Bostean

2013. “Does Selective Migration Explain the Hispanic Paradox? A Comparative Analysis of Mexicans in the US and Mexico.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 15: 624–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9646-y .

Bourque

van der Ven

Malla

. 2011. “A Meta-Analysis of the Risk for Psychotic Disorders among First-and Second-Generation Immigrants.” Psychological Medicine 41 (5): 897–910. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291710001406 .

Calderón-Narváez

1997. “Un cuestionario para simplificar el diagnóstico del síndrome depresivo.” Revista de Neuro-psiquiatría 60 (2): 127–35. https://doi.org/10.20453/rnp.v60i2.1406 .

Campos-Vazquez

R. M.

Lara

. 2012. “Self-selection Patterns among Return Migrants: Mexico 1990-2010.” IZA Journal of Migration 1: 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-9039-1-8 .

Cantor-Graae

. 2007. “The Contribution of Social Factors to the Development of Schizophrenia: A Review of Recent Findings.” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 52 (5): 277–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370705200502.

10.

Cassarino

J. P.

2004. “The Conceptual Approach to Return Migrants Revisited.” International Journal on Multicultural Societies 6 (2): 253–79. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-85852013000200003 .

11.

Cheong

A. R.

Massey

D. S.

. 2019. “Undocumented and Unwell: Legal status and Health among Mexican Migrants.” International Migration Review 53 (2): 571–601. https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918318775924 .

12.

Kouvonen

Bosqui

Patel

O’Reilly

Donnelly

. 2016. “The Mental Health and Wellbeing of First-Generation Migrants: A Systematic-Narrative Review of Reviews.” Globalization and Health 12: 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-016-0187-3 .

13.

Diaz

C. J.

Koning

S. M.

Martinez-Donate

A. P.

. 2016. “Moving Beyond Salmon Bias: Mexican Return Migration and Health Selection.” Demography 53 (6): 2005–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-016-0526-2 .

14.

Dillon

F. R.

De La Rosa

Ibañez

G. E.

. 2013. “Acculturative Stress and Diminishing Family Cohesion among Recent Latino Immigrants.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 15: 484–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9678-3 .

15.

Donato

K. M.

Caron

Hamilton

. 2020. “Migration and Mental Health in Mexico: Domestic Migrants, Return US Migrants, and Non-Migrants.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 10: 970. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00970 .

16.

Donato

K. M.

Hamilton

E. R.

Bernard-Sasges

. 2019. “Gender and Health in Mexico: Differences Between Returned Migrants and Nonmigrants.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 684 (1): 165–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219857964 .

17.

Dreby

. 2010. Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and their Children. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

18.

Durand

Massey

Zenteno

. 2001. “Mexican Immigration to the United States: Continuities and Changes.” Latin American Research Review 36 (1): 107–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0023879100018859 .

19.

Durand

Massey

D. S.

. 2019. “Evolution of the Mexico-US Migration System: Insights from the Mexican Migration Project.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 684 (1): 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219857667 .

20.

Feliciano

2020. “Immigrant Selectivity Effects on Health, Labor Market, and Educational Outcomes.” Annual Review of Sociology 46: 315–34. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054639 .

21.

Fussell

2004. “Sources of Mexico's Migration Stream: Rural, Urban, and Border Migrants to the United States.” Social Forces 82 (3): 937–67. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2004.0039 .

22.

Fussell

Massey

D. S.

. 2004. “The Limits to Cumulative Causation: International Migration from Mexican Urban Areas.” Demography 41 (1): 151–71. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2004.0003 .

23.

Giorguli-Saucedo

S. E.

García-Guerrero

V. M.

Masferrer

. 2016. "A Migration System in the Making." In Demographic dynamics and migration policies in North America and the Northern Triangle of Central America (Policy Paper). El Colegio de México.

24.

Gonzalez-Barrera

Ana.

2015. More Mexicans Leaving than Coming to the US. Pew Research Center (Hispanic Trends).

25.

Haagsman

Mazzucato

Dito

B. B.

. 2015. “Transnational Families and the Subjective Well- Being of Migrant Parents: Angolan and Nigerian Parents in the Netherlands.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 38 (15): 2652–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.1037783 .

26.

Hamilton

E. R.

Orraca-Romano

P. P.

Vargas Valle

. 2023. “Legal Status, Deportation, and the Health of Returned Migrants from the USA to Mexico.” Population Research and Policy Review 42 (2): 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-023-09745-7 .

27.

Jass

Massey

D. S.

. 2004. Immigrant Health: Selectivity and Acculturation (No. 04/23). IFS Working Papers.

28.

León-Pérez

2019. “Internal Migration and the Health of Indigenous Mexicans: A Longitudinal Study.” SSM-Population Health 8: 100407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100407 .

29.

2016. “Pre-migration Trauma and Post-Migration Stressors for Asian and Latino American Immigrants: Transnational Stress Proliferation.” Social Indicators Research 129: 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1090-7 .

30.

Masferrer

2016. “Does Family Matter for Recent Immigrants’ Life Satisfaction?” Advances in Life Course Research 28: 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2016.10.002 .

31.

Masferrer

Hamilton

E. R.

Denier

. 2024. “Adding Return Migration to the Equation: U.S. Immigration Policy and Migrant Families in Mexico.” In Immigration Policy and Immigrant Families, edited by Van Hook

King

, 23–50. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66679-7_2 .

32.

Masferrer

Roberts

B. R.

. 2012. “Going Back Home? Changing Demography and Geography of Mexican Return Migration.” Population Research and Policy Review 31: 465–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-012-9243-8 .

33.

Massey

D. S.

Sánchez

. 2010. Brokered Boundaries: Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

34.

Palloni

Arias

. 2004. “Paradox Lost: Explaining the Hispanic Adult Mortality Advantage.” Demography 41 (3): 385–415. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2004.0024 .

35.

Parreñas

R. S

. 2001. Servants of Globalization. Women, Migration and Domestic Work. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

36.

Perreira

K. M.

Ornelas

. 2013. “Painful Passages: Traumatic Experiences and Post-Traumatic Stress among US Immigrant Latino Adolescents and Their Primary Caregivers.” International Migration Review 47 (4): 976–1005. https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12050 .

37.

Pew Research Center. 2024. Migrant Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico Border Hit a Record High at the End of 2023. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center.

38.

Riosmena

Wong

Palloni

. 2013. “Migration Selection, Protection, and Acculturation in Health: A Binational Perspective on Older Adults.” Demography 50 (3): 1039–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0178-9 .

39.

Fleischer

. 2014. “Changes in Health Selection of Obesity among Mexican Immigrants: A Binational Examination.” Social Science & Medicine 123: 114–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.047 .

40.

Rumbaut

2006. “The Making of a People.” In Hispanics and the Future of America edited by National Research Council, 16–65. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

41.

Sangalang

C. C.

Becerra

Mitchell

F. M.

Lechuga-Peña

Lopez

Kim

. 2019. “Trauma, Post-Migration Stress, and Mental Health: A Comparative Analysis of Refugees and Immigrants in the United States.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 21: 909–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0826-2 .

42.

Schmeer

K. K.

2013. “Family Structure and Child Anemia in Mexico.” Social Science & Medicine 95: 16–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.10.028 .

43.

Schuman

Presser

. 1996. Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experiments on Question Form, Wording, and Context. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

44.

Schwartz

S. J.

Unger

J. B.

Baezconde-Garbanati

Zamboanga

B. L.

Lorenzo-Blanco

E. I.

Des Rosiers

S. E.

Romero

A. J.

, et al. 2015. “Trajectories of Cultural Stressors and Effects on Mental Health and Substance Use among Hispanic Immigrant Adolescents.” Journal of Adolescent Health 56 (4): 433–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.12.011 .

45.

Sobrino

2014. “Migración interna y tamaño de localidad en México.” Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos 29 (3): 443–80. https://doi.org/10.24201/edu.v29i3.1468 .

46.

Soto

A. G. R.

Putzel-Kavanaugh

. 2023. Shifting Patterns and Policies Reshape Migration to U.S.-Mexico Border in Major Ways in 2023. Washington, D.C.: Migration Policy Institute.

47.

Torres

J. M.

Wallace

S. P.

. 2013. “Migration Circumstances, Psychological Distress, and Self-Rated Physical Health for Latino Immigrants in the United States.” American Journal of Public Health 103 (9): 1619–27. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301195 .

48.

Turra

C. M.

Elo

I. T.

. 2008. “The Impact of Salmon Bias on the Hispanic Mortality Advantage: New Evidence from Social Security Data.” Population Research and Policy Review 27: 515–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-008-9087-4 .

49.

Ullmann

S. H.

Goldman

Massey

D. S.

. 2011. “Healthier Before They Migrate, Less Healthy When They Return? The Health of Returned Migrants in Mexico.” Social Science & Medicine 73 (3): 421–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.05.037 .

50.

Van Hook

Zhang

. 2011. “Who Stays? Who Goes? Selective Emigration among the Foreign-Born.” Population Research and Policy Review 30: 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-010-9183-0 .

51.

Villarreal

Hamilton

E. R.

. 2012. “Rush to the Border? Market Liberalization and Urban-and Rural-Origin Internal Migration in Mexico.” Social Science Research 41 (5): 1275–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.02.007 .

52.

Worby

P. A.

Organista

K. C.

. 2007. “Alcohol Use and Problem Drinking among Male Mexican and Central American Im/Migrant Laborers: A Review of the Literature.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 29 (4): 413–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986307308765 .

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.08 MB

Migrating Alone or With Family? Mental Health Among Internal and US Return Migrants in Mexico

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material