As Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto travels across California and declares America to be “the other Mexico,” a Pew Research survey has found that 60% of Mexicans disapprove of Peña Nieto on the economy. Perhaps as a result, a plurality of Mexicans think that life is better across the border, and a third want to move to America.
In addition, the Pew survey found that “two-thirds are dissatisfied with the way things are going in Mexico today” while “only 30% are satisfied with the country’s direction.” That may be why “a plurality of Mexicans (44%) believe life is better north of the border for those who migrated from Mexico” and “roughly a third (34%) still say they would move to the U.S. if they had the opportunity, including 17% of Mexicans who would do so” illegally. Fewer Mexicans, though, said they had close friends and family in the United States than in years past.
On Monday, Peña Nieto scolded governors who did not embrace open borders. California Gov. Jerry Brown was not one of them. The liberal Democrat who has turned California into a sanctuary state and given illegal immigrants driver’s licenses said that illegal immigrants from Mexico are “all welcome in California.”
Mexicans are overwhelmingly concerned with crime in their country – 79% of respondents said “crime is a very big problem in their country.” In addition, “about seven-in-ten Mexicans also worry about corrupt political leaders (72%), drug cartel-related violence (72%), water pollution (70%) and air pollution (69%).” In addition, “just over six-in-ten say corrupt police officers (63%) are a top problem.”
As Breitbart News noted, a “record 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2012,” and that estimate included “11.4 million immigrants born in Mexico and 22.3 million born in the U.S. who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican origin,” according to data from the Census and Pew Research. In addition, Mexicans accounted for “nearly two-thirds (64%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2012” and “made up roughly 28% percent of all foreign-born residents in the United States.”
Pew Research, in conjunction with Princeton Survey Research Associates, conducted the interviews in Spanish. The poll was taken in Mexico based on “1,000 face-to-face interviews with adults 18 and older, between April 21 and May 2, 2014,” and its margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points.
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