Immigrants in Their Parental Homeland: Half a Million U.S.-born Minors Settle Throughout Mexico.

In the past 10 years, a historical change occurred in migration flows within North America: specifically, Mexico-U.S. migration reached zero net migration. Alongside Mexican adults returning to their homeland was an unprecedented number of U.S.-born minors. Little is known about this massive migration of U.S. citizen children. We analyze Mexican census data from 2000 to 2015 to estimate the size and characteristics of the population of U.S.-born minors residing in Mexico. Between 2000 and 2010, the population of U.S.-born minors doubled to more than half a million. The population stabilized, aged, and became longer-term Mexican residents thereafter. The large majority of U.S.-born minors are primary school-aged. Although concentrated in the northern border and traditional migrant-sending regions, U.S.-born minors are distributed throughout Mexico. The majority of U.S.-born minors live in Mexico with two Mexican-born parents, but one-third are separated from one or both parents, and most of those separated from parents reside with grandparents. We interpret these trends in reference to the determinants of Mexico-U.S. migration, transnational and mixed-status families, and the future spatial and social mobility of U.S.-born minors living in Mexico.

Health of newly arrived immigrants in Canada and the United States: Differential selection on health.

Canada and the U.S. are two major immigrant-receiving countries characterized by different immigration policies and health care systems. The present study examines whether immigrant health selection, or the "healthy immigrant effect", differs by destination and what factors may account for differences in immigrant health selection. We use 12 years of U.S. National Health Interview Survey and Canadian Community Health Survey data to compare the risks of overweight/obesity and chronic health conditions among new immigrants in the two countries. Results suggest a more positive health selection of immigrants to Canada than the U.S. Specifically, newly arrived U.S. immigrants are more likely to be overweight or obese and have serious chronic health conditions than their Canadian counterparts. The difference in overweight/obesity was explained by differences in source regions and educational levels of immigrants across the two countries. But this is not the case for serious chronic conditions. These results suggest that immigration-related policies can potentially shape immigrant health selection.