墨西哥移民美国人数创40年来新低

AS IT IS 2015-12-20 Mexican Immigration to US Lowest in 40 Years 墨西哥移民美国人数创40年来新低

More Mexicans are leaving the U.S. than entering, says a recent study.

The report from the Pew Research Center was released as some presidential candidates talk about building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Not since the 1970s have fewer Mexicans entered the U.S. than returned home.

The flow of Mexican immigrants into the U.S. is at its lowest since the 1990s.

The author of the Pew report says there are two main reasons for the reduction of immigrants.

First, the U.S. economy has been slow to recover after the recession that began around 2009.

Second, the U.S. is more strictly¹ enforcing immigration laws at the border between the two countries.

A census² report in Mexico says that 1 million Mexicans returned home from the U.S. in the five years leading to 2014. The U.S. census for the same period shows only 870,000 Mexicans moved to the U.S.

The Pew report offers a clear warning about its statistics.

“There are no official counts of how many Mexican immigrants enter and leave the U.S. each year,” it says. So the numbers are estimates, not precise numbers.

The report says a growing percentage of Mexicans think life in the U.S. is not better or worse than living in Mexico.

The number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. peaked at 12.8 million in 2007. It has declined since.

More than 60 percent of the people who returned to Mexico say they wanted to be closer to family. Only 14 percent returned against their will because they were deported³.

There are fewer Mexicans coming into the U.S., but Mexicans still make up the largest foreign-born group in the country, at 28 percent.

In the 50 years ending in 2015, 16 million Mexicans came to live in the United States.

Words in This Story

census – n. the official process of counting the number of people in a country, city, or town and collecting information about them

peak – adj. filled with the most activity

statistics - n. a collection of numbers or other information

strict – adj. describing a command, rule, etc., that must be obeyed

1 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

2 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

3 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》