Where do the most expats live in Mexico, and where do they come from?

There are just under a million foreigners living in Mexico and an increasing migration of people from East Asian countries, according to website hipertextual.com.

The touristic attraction of Mexico is recognized in the world, whether because it concentrates an impressive biodiversity, since its ecosystems’ variety makes it a charming destination with a lot of possibilities. Or because of the characteristics of Mexican culture, with so many facets that even some expressions are considered examples of Intangible World Heritage.

What about people born outside of Mexico who -for various reasons- chose to stay and live in this multifaceted country? That is: where do they come from? Where do they live? Which country has the largest amount of people living in Mexico? For that we’ll look into the census data of the National Migration Institute of Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Migración de México INAM), as well as the National Geography and Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía INEGI).

According to INEGI’s 2010 Population and Housing Census, there are 961,121 people born in another country, living in Mexico; this is equivalent to .86% of the total population (a number that includes only people with legal residence).

To this data should be added the fact that in the last decade the foreigners phenomenon in Mexico has intensified, as says the UNAM in its Inmigration and Cultural Diversity website. An outstanding fact is that Chinese inmigrants have tripled, while the number of Korean inmigrants has grown 12 times in the same period.

In the case of European inmigrants, Spanish are the largest group living in Mexico, followed by the French, German, and Italian. In general, European people living in Mexico prefer the larger cities to settle, among them Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tampico, Puebla, Chiapas, and Veracruz.

On the other hand, we can see that the country ranking second on the list is Guatemala; it’s not the only Latin American country, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Honduras, and El Salvador are also there. It should be noted that the latter two Central American countries and Guatemala are the nationalities of the migrants thar cross Mexico to reach the United States; this fact that has been pointed out as a real migration crisis in Mexico.

At least one third of the nearly one million foreign inmigrants in Mexico are found in the northen border, in the states of Baja California, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. But central states like Queretaro, Hidalgo, and Jalisco in the west, have a high concentration of inmigrants, too. 

Source: hipertextual.com