The low representation of foreigners is shown by the fact that these individuals represented 1.0 percent of the country’s population.
Mexico has not been a nation characterized by immigration, but by emigration. According to the 2020 Population and Housing Census, the number of foreign-born people residing in Mexico amounted to 1,212,252.
The low representativeness of foreigners is shown by the fact that these individuals represented 1.0 percent of the country’s population. In addition, immigrants in Mexico were approximately one-tenth of Mexican emigrants to other latitudes.
The low proportion of foreigners has limited the use of the potential benefits of immigration. In addition to non-economic benefits, such as cultural diversity, in any country, the immigrant population can drive economic improvement.
Specifically, as economies develop and undergo processes of change and diversification, new needs for human capital arise. Low-skilled migrants may complement and even eventually replace local workers who may be able to perform more sophisticated tasks, as has been observed in the advanced stages of development of other nations.
More important for progress is the immigration of highly skilled labor. The main driver of sustained economic growth is technological change, resulting from innovation and the application of new knowledge.
There is ample evidence that highly skilled immigrants, including, among others, scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and teachers, support economic progress. In particular, these individuals spread ideas from abroad, innovate, make discoveries, lead and coordinate the activities of others, and thus boost productivity.
No economy has benefited more from highly skilled immigration than the United States, as demonstrated by, among other indicators, the considerable proportions of inventors, innovative output, patents, Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics, and new businesses associated with immigrants in that territory.
Given its relative abundance of low-skilled labor, Mexico would be especially favored by more highly skilled immigration. The obvious question is: why has it not attracted more immigrants? The simple answer is that the country has not offered an enabling environment for that purpose.
Among the possible factors that determine a nation’s attractiveness to skilled immigration, the opportunities to interact closely with others of similar or greater abilities stand out. Such conditions, referred to in technical language as “agglomeration economies,” help explain why the high-skilled immigrant population tends to be concentrated in a few countries and, within these, in certain regions and cities.
For example, according to the World Bank, while OECD nations account for less than a fifth of the world’s population, they host two-thirds of highly skilled migrants. In addition, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are the destinations for about 70 percent of these migrants. Talent is also concentrated in cities such as New York, London, Boston and San Francisco.
In the competition for highly qualified labor, Mexico has faced structural weaknesses, including a basic education system with low average quality and limited coverage, universities with medium or low prestige by international standards, and meager investment in research and development.
As a result, Mexico’s integration into the global economy has remained oriented toward the manufacture of components and the assembly of parts in manufacturing processes using imported technology. With cheap labor being the main advantage, innovation has been minimal.
Far from having significantly increased talent from abroad, the salary differential, the unchallenging intellectual environment, and the increase in schooling have made Mexican emigration increasingly highly qualified, which has benefited, in particular, the United States. Thus, a significant proportion of people born in Mexico with a doctorate degree currently live in that country.
Mexico should take advantage of its proximity to the United States to build an accessible and attractive environment for the immigration and retention of professionals. This requires, among other aspects, a government strategy that allocates sufficient resources to fundamentally transform the educational system and permanently promote investment in research and development.
Source: elfinanciero
