Migrants in Mexico contribute 1.7 percent of GDP, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City, Mexico): Mexico is moving from being a country of transit to one of destination, due to the migration policy of the United States under the administration of Donald Trump, said Humberto Soto de la Rosa, head of the Social Development Unit of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Mexico.
“In 2024, most migrants passing through Mexico wanted to go to the United States, with 76 percent saying so in interviews. With Trump’s migration policy, in September 2025 that figure was 28 percent, because they could no longer go and stays of more than six months and plans to remain in Mexico began to increase.”
Soto de la Rosa made these remarks while presenting the lecture “Migrants, Characterization and Contribution to the Economy” as part of a lecture series marking 75 years of ECLAC in Mexico and 50 years of the Faculty of Economics (FE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Speaking before FE director Lorena Rodríguez León and Laura Vázquez Maggio, a faculty member, the official presented ECLAC statistical analyses showing that, although migrants are a stigmatized group, they stand out for completed, efficient and dedicated work once they enter the labor market.
Soto de la Rosa told the audience in the Octavio Gudiño Hall of the Faculty of Economics that native-born Mexicans contribute 98.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), with the remainder contributed by migrants born in the United States and returnees. “The most relevant figure is that, in total, the migrant population contributes 1.7 percent of GDP, while representing 0.88 percent of the population.”
This means that, in relative terms, migrants contribute more to the economy than natives. ECLAC will use this information to propose to the country’s migration policymakers a campaign to combat the stigmatization of migrants.
“This figure could be higher because many migrants work in the informal economy and there is still a lack of data on this group. If migrants were formally employed, they could contribute a great deal.”
As an example, he said FEMSA, the multinational company that produces Coca-Cola, has a migrant job placement program. “We have been told that when they hire migrants, they are more punctual, more careful in their work and more efficient in what they do.”
Another group of migrants consists of foreigners coming to Mexico, divided into three types of mobility: regular migrants, mainly working in agriculture, services, commerce, construction and manufacturing; irregular migrants, working in the agricultural sector and gradually moving into services and commerce; and refugees, 67 percent of whom are in the informal economy.
Among regular foreign migrants, those from Guatemala, the United States and China stand out; irregular migrants come mainly from Venezuela; and refugees come mainly from Honduras and Cuba.
“At ECLAC we see an interesting issue regarding migration viewed from the economy, but we need clarity about everything happening around that topic in order to make a policy recommendation.”
Migrants who had planned to pass through to the United States may stay in Mexico, and investing in a program for productive integration of migrants in Mexico would be advisable. “At ECLAC we analyze the data and make recommendations to governments,” he concluded.
