How Remitting Affects Authorized and Unauthorized Mexican Immigrant Integration in the United States

Enrico A. Marcelli, University of Massachusetts
B. Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University

In addition to augmenting policymakers’ and financial service providers’ desire to know more about the characteristics of foreign-born remitters, increasing levels of remittances have raised questions about the financial tradeoffs involved. This paper employs the 2001 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Legal Status Survey (LA-MILSS) to investigate the determinants of migrant remittances and the tradeoffs households make when remitting that may affect their members’ integration in the United States. Specifically, we first estimate how various demographic characteristics (including immigrant residency status and duration of U.S. residency), neighborhood environment, and social network quality influenced whether and how much Mexican households remitted during the year preceding July 2001. Results permit us to address an emerging theoretical debate concerning whether remitting attenuates with integration or whether the new transnationalism is likely to increase remittance flows. We conclude by discussing whether remitting reduces Mexican immigrant households’ opportunities to invest in home ownership and education.