The migration decision process among returnees: Assessing the risks and benefits in contemporary Mexico–US migration

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates how return migrants assess the risks and benefits of migrating internationally by drawing on their previous migration experiences. We draw on data collected in a small city in Guanajuato, Mexico that contains in-depth interviews with 49 participants and 480 surveys on migration and health outcomes for return migrants and nonmigrants. This manuscript contributes to the literature by focusing on how return migrants, who previously worked in the USA without legal authorization, assess the risks and benefits in the migration decision process. Our article contributes to the substantive and theoretical migration literature by taking into consideration how the accumulation of migration and labor market experience may shape intentions and behaviors among returnees. Our findings highlight the broad array of factors that migrants consider including the dangers of crossing the border, hazardous working conditions, and prolonged family separation. Though the risks associated with unauthorized migration to the USA have escalated in recent years, some return migrants in our sample plan to migrate again to the USA. Respondents report wanting to return to the USA because of the perceived availability of jobs through social networks that provide access to higher wages and improvements to lifestyle and work experiences when compared to their current socioeconomic situation. Therefore, we argue that prior US experience provides migrants with a new frame of reference which they use to compare their lives upon returning to Mexico—and which likely informs their future desires to remigrate to the USA.