In Mexico, more than 1.4 million people with formal employment have moved to another city in the last decade in search of a better quality of life, according to data from Infonavit (National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute).
Mexico City, although it maintains the largest labor market in the country, has failed to retain a significant portion of its Infonavit beneficiaries, who have opted to relocate to other metropolises, primarily in the north and center of the country.
The Institute’s data reveal that between 2013 and 2023, the nation’s capital transferred 385,500 workers and only received 172,300. This difference made it the market with the largest negative migration flow among the country’s 92 metropolitan areas, according to Infonavit’s Quarterly Economic Report for the last four months of 2023 (with the most recent migration data).
Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Querétaro were the preferred destinations. From the capital, 49,900 people left for Monterrey, 44,400 for Guadalajara, and 34,100 for Querétaro. In the opposite direction, arrivals were lower: Monterrey sent 22,100 people, Guadalajara 16,300, and Querétaro 8,900.
“These data allow us to analyze internal migration flows for a segment of the population and identify the labor markets where people who migrate between metropolises have a greater relative weight,” notes the study conducted by Pablo Aguilar Ortiz and Mateo Lartigue Mendoza, researchers at the Institute.
The cities that grew the most
On average, 19.3% of beneficiaries who held formal employment for ten consecutive years changed metropolises during that period, nationwide. However, in certain cities this percentage was much higher.
Valladolid, Yucatán, recorded the highest rate at 67.3%, followed by San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, with 53.7%, Cancún, Quintana Roo, with 36.1%, and Querétaro with 32.7%.
This proportion refers only to people who currently contribute in those cities and who, ten years earlier, worked in a different metropolis. In other words, it does not measure those who left those cities, but rather those who arrived from another urban labor market. Therefore, these figures reflect the weight of labor migration to those cities.
“Formal employment is concentrated in the country’s largest metropolises, which continually receive and transfer thousands of beneficiaries, mainly from nearby regions,” the document indicates.
Geographical displacements
Of the 22.9 million people who contributed to Infonavit in the fourth two-month period of 2023, nine million also did so ten years earlier.
Within this scenario, 7.1 million workers were employed in a metropolitan area at the beginning and end of the period, which made it possible to trace their potential change of residence based on the location of their registered employer.
The analysis excluded those who changed companies within the same metropolitan area, so only those who were employed in another city were identified as migrants.
This methodology determined that 19.3% of those who maintained formal employment throughout the decade had migrated. In shorter periods, the proportion was lower: 16.2% in five years and 6.5% in one.
The researchers note that these percentages are comparable with data from the United States, where 15% of workers change metropolitan areas every five years.
Regions with the Most Movement
Although the greatest migration flow occurred between large metropolises, there was also a high number of displacements within other regions. Cancún, for example, received 41,800 people, of whom 51.3% came from cities in the south of the country. León received 35,100, and 35% came from the Bajío region.
This is because people tend to move to nearby cities, according to the study. This is partly due to the costs associated with moving and the family or social networks that remain within the same region.
Source: obras.expansion
