Photo: Without fertile land to use to support themselves, Mexicans migrate north
According a report from the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) bank, the migration of Mexicans to the U.S. may have been triggered by a change in climate which dried out much of Mexico’s land, leaving it unsuitable for farming.
The study, which included interviews of nearly 20,000 Mexicans carried out from 1982 to 2009, states that due to the ill-suited land it can be “inferred that the environment is playing an important role in encouraging Mexicans to emigrate to the United States.”
The report, which was released on Wednesday, goes on to say, “Soil erosion and changes in rainfall patterns have been additional factors for emigration.”
For areas that see a quick growth in population, agriculture is often key to survival, so when land cannot support it, the population is forced to go elsewhere.
BBVA concluded that, “It is reasonable to say that climate has been a factor encouraging some people to leave their communities and relocate to other regions, whether inside the country to more urban areas or even emigrating abroad.”
Currently, it is estimated that 12 million Mexican-born immigrants live in the U.S.
