Mexico leads in migrations

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A World Bank report released Sunday shows that Mexico sends more migrants abroad than any other country on earth exceeding even the flows from nations that are much bigger, much poorer or convulsed by war and famine.

Two million Mexicans left their homeland between 2000 and 2005, according to the study, most of them to seek employment in the United States. China, whose population is more than 12 times larger than that of Mexico, saw 1.95 million of its citizens leave the country. More than 1.8 million Pakistanis left their homeland. Neighboring India produced 1.4 million migrants.

Economic migrants dwarfed the flows of refugees. For example, just over a half-million residents of Sudan fled that war-torn nation between 2000 and 2005, according to data from the World Bank’s report, World Development Indicators 2007.

The northward flow of Mexicans to the United States is one of the largest exoduses in modern history. The equivalent of 10% of Mexico’s population of 107 million people now resides north of the border, according to estimates.

Posted by Marla Dickerson in Mexico City