Breathe
By Barbara Anderson
While in Mexico we have a low participation of women in the labor market, the same is not true on the other side of the border.
In our country 43.2% of women are part of the economically active population (the famous EAP), in the case of Mexican women who migrated to the United States the percentage rises to 52.4%, according to the latest report of CEMLA's Latin American and Caribbean Remittances Forum.
What do you think this change will do? The possibility of having day care centers, with full-time schools to be able to leave their children in a safe place and be able to work. Incredible truth: here is the key for the powerful female workforce to join a market. The same is a lower rate than the average of the total number of women working in the U.S. market, which represents 58.4%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
"It is also important to highlight that the main reason for the migration of men and women is to seek employment, and this is undoubtedly the main factor that triggers the difference in participation in each country," the report adds. A similar phenomenon occurs in the case of men, because while in Mexico the percentage of employment reaches 75%, in the United States it rises to 81.5%.
There are currently 5,115,804 Mexican migrant women living in the United States. But this is not the only interesting fact in a report that dispels many myths and biases regarding 'the' migrants:
More heroines than living heroes: since 2010, the total number of female migrants exceeded the number of male migrants (51.3%).
They are more clingy: although in the last seven years -2014/21- there was a negative flow of migrants of Mexican origin, (an unprecedented contraction of almost one million fewer countrymen) the higher percentage of desertion was of men than of women: 57 versus 43.
More experience: in the last seven years, the age of migrant women's communities has increased. While until 2014 the average age of Mexican women working in the United States was 35 years old, now it is 46. Today 54% of the women who migrated in the last year have that age range.
They do not cross over to give birth: this is another change (perhaps influenced by the age issue) but what is certain is that the number of births to Mexican migrant women fell from 359,819 in 2007 to 193,370 in 2021. While 14 years ago, 1 in 12 babies born in the United States had a Mexican migrant mother, today the percentage has changed to 1 in 21 births.
They arrive more prepared: in recent years, the schooling of migrants has improved overall, but much more so among women, who now have more years of schooling than men. In 2007, 40% of migrant women had completed high school before arriving in the United States versus 39.7% of men; in 2021 the percentage was 50.2% for women versus 47% for men.
They continue to invest in their education: "And more women migrants decide to invest in studying in a school in exile than men," adds the CEMLA report. As of last year, there were 385,000 Mexican migrant women enrolled in some grade in the U.S. educational system versus 322,000 men.
And it is relevant to look at the statistics of those who study undergraduate or graduate degrees while in that country: today there are 193,000 female migrants in college versus 133,000 men, which represents 9.3% of the total female migrant population versus 7.7% of the male migrant population.
According to the latest reports from the Bank of Mexico as of October of this year, remittances to our country have already shown 30 months of month-over-month growth. In the same period of time (10 months) of this year versus 2021, the increase in the volume of money was 11.2%, which would even compensate for the inflationary increase.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a few days ago that if the volume of money sent from the United States continues to grow, we would close 2022 with a total of $60 billion dollars.
But we should change the message and not only refer to the 'heroes' but to the 'living heroines' who have shown first that they are more, that they have changed many stigmas regarding female migration and that they have become a workforce not only more skilled but in permanent training in a country where they are experiencing a phenomenon of massive resignation of U.S. employees.
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