11
Chapter 1
CharacteristicsofMexican
Immigrants intheUnited States
Trendsand Scope
Mexicans are the largest immigrant group
in theUnitedStates
The United States is a country that has been mar-
ked by immigration since its birth as a nation. Over
the years, numerous and diverse flows of immigrants
have contributed to forming the country’s identity.
The composition and origin of immigration to
theUnitedStateshas varieddramatically in recent de-
cades.Whereas in 1960, over two out of three immi-
grants in theUnited Stateswere Europeans (70%), in
the following decades immigrants from LatinAmerica
and the Caribbean increased significantly, and from
2000onwards theyaccounted for over half of the im-
migrant population resident in the country (Figure1).
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the volume and
presents the latestdataon the trendsandcharacteris-
tics of theMexican immigrant population living in the
United States. It presents data describing their socio-
demographicprofile, lengthof residence in thecountry,
rateof naturalization, participation in the labormarket
and income inorder todescribe someof the social de-
terminantsof health that impact them.
In the United States, social inequality is related
to some ethnic-racial migratory factors, so this report
uses a comparative perspective to analyze theMexi-
canpopulationbyalsopresentingdataon theUS-born
population (bothnon-HispanicwhiteandAfricanAme-
rican) and other groups of immigrants (from Central
America and other world regions). The analysis is pri-
marily based on the trends of the last decade based
ondata from the
Current PopulationSurvey
and
Ame-
ricanCommunity Survey
(cps andacs), both of which
areofficial USCensus Bureau surveys.
