Recent Mexican immigrants more likely to be college educated

The share of Mexican immigrants with a college degree has increased in Texas. There are 145,000 persons from Mexico in Texas with a college degree. 45% of them are naturalized citizens. That’s 8% of the Mexican born population of the state, or 2.2 million.

Today almost one in five recent (since 2013) Mexican immigrants living in the state has a college degree versus 7% in 2000. This mirrors a nationwide trend that is increasing the level of educational attainment among recent Mexican and other immigrants. Temporary visa holders (ie business related) from Mexico are about 55% college educated.

Mexicans in Texas with a college degree tend to work in primary and secondary education and in construction.

There appear to be several factors driving these trends. First, educational attainment in Mexico has increased significantly. Another likely factor is rising violence in Mexico which reached historically high rates in 2017. This may be driving Mexican professionals to move to United States mostly living in border city such as McAllen and El Paso as well as nearby cities such as San Antonio

Finally many Mexican companies have made major investments in the US presence in the past decade, bringing senior executives and key personnel with them. Texas has led the way as a major destination in America for Mexican business investment.

However, 40% of Mexicans in the United States with a college degree have low English proficiency. This contrasts with the roughly 10% of college educated immigrants from other countries with low English proficiency.

From here.

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