Children on the Move? Mexico-U.S. Migration and Prospects for the Future

Katharine M. Donato, Vanderbilt University
Blake Sisk, Vanderbilt University

Despite the progress made by scholars investigating the process of Mexico-US migration over the past thirty years, little is known about the role of children. This paper attempts to address that gap in the literature. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we examine a) the extent to which children’s migration is tied to that of their parents, and b) how the propensity for Mexican children to migrate to the US has shifted over time. Our analysis reveals that children’s migration is strongly tied to parent’s migration, and that the probability of children’s migration has declined in the past ten years. Together these findings have critically important implications for the future prospects for Mexico-U.S. migration.