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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2007 
Mexican Youth More Likely to Migrate
 Associated Press
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| | Mexican youth waiting to cross the fence into US from Tijuana, Mexico. (Basil Pao) |
Mexico City - More than a third of Mexican migrants are under age 25, driven to leave the country because of poverty and Mexico's inability to keep young people in school, the National Population Council reports.
The government agency estimated that 220,000 Mexicans aged 15 to 24 left the country each year from 2000 to 2005, about 38 percent the total number of migrants who headed abroad, mainly to the United States, during the period.
At 19 percent of the general population, people in that age bracket are twice as likely to migrate as the rest of the populace.
Cesar Garces, the head of the council, said 47 percent of Mexico's youth live in poverty, and that only seven in 10 of Mexico's 15-year-olds, half of its 17-year-olds and 29 percent of its 20-year-olds are still in school.
But he said the percentage of Mexicans with at least a high school education has grown from 8 percent in 1970 to 42 percent now.
Garces spoke at a conference held by the United Nations Population Fund for International Youth Day 2007, set for Sunday. |
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