The impact of return migration on the Mexican labor market El impacto de la migración de retorno en el mercado laboral de México

Resumen

Abstract Mexican return migration has been stable until 2012, while migration flows to the USA have fallen substantially between 2005 and 2012; the changes in the Mexican migration flows have affected the supply side of the Mexican labor market. The paper analyses the potential effects of the return migration on the Mexican labor market. According to the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE), return migrants to Mexico started to significantly increase since the third quarter of 2005 to the third quarter of 2009, and after that the number of returned migrants started to slightly decline until the second quarter 2013. Considering the availability of data an empirical econometric model is established including the unemployment rate as dependent variable and the real GDP and socioeconomic characteristics of migrants as explanatory variables. The results showed that changes in return migration have a positive impact in changes in the unemployment rate. On the other hand, the real GDP and migration to the USA have had a negative impact on the unemployment rate of Mexico. Given the increase of unemployment reported in ENOE, the results suggest that the inadequate capacity of the Mexican economy to absorb the return migration workers is limited.