News ReleasesFor Immediate Release
December 7, 2005
Contact: Paul Winters, American University, 202-885-3770, winters@american.edu.
Mexican Welfare Payments Reduce U.S. Immigration
Mexican government payments to impoverished rural households reduce Mexican migration to the United States—even in communities with a history of sending large numbers of migrants across the border, according to a study in the latest issue of the journal Demography.
Rural Mexicans receiving payments through a Mexican-government anti-poverty program were significantly less likely to migrate to the United States than those who did not receive the money, say study co-authors Guy Stecklov of Hebrew University (Israel), Paul Winters of American University, Marco Stampini of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy), and Benjamin Davis of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "Cash payments provided to households appear to significantly limit international migration, with the odds of migration to the U.S. reduced by over 50 percent," Stecklov says. But while the government-funded payments reduce U.S. migration, the study's authors found such payments have little effect on migration within Mexico. The Mexican PROGRESA program (now called Opportunidades) reached 40 percent of all rural Mexican families (a total of 2.3 million households) by the end of 1999. To receive elementary school fees and food grants averaging $16 per month, participants are required to attend public health lectures, make regular health clinic visits, and ensure their children go to school. For the study, the researchers examined data that tracked participation in the PROGRESA program in 506 rural communities in seven Mexican regions over three years (1997-1999). The data included detailed information on household members who had migrated to the United States in the previous five years (1992-1997). "Prior research has shown Mexicans are more likely to migrate if they have relatives or close family friends already living in the United States," notes Winters. "We were surprised to find that the cash payments deterred U.S. migration, even in communities that had the largest numbers of members already living in the United States." According to the study's authors, their findings suggest that public payments may be helpful in stemming rural out-migration, particularly to the United States. They also conclude that such programs may be most effective if they are targeted towards communities with strong existing migration patterns.
The full article, "Do Conditional Cash Transfers Influence Migration? A Study Using Experimental Data from the Mexican PROGRESA Program," is available at www.prb.org/cpipr/demography/Winters.pdf. Or call the Center for Public Information on Population Research at 202-939-5409. The Center, a project of the Population Reference Bureau, is funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development.
Demography is the peer-reviewed journal published by the Population Association of America. | 
