More Mexican immigrants leaving the United States than entering it

The study, which relies on government census data from both countries, acknowledges that it is hard to measure the inflow of immigration into the US from Mexico. "It resembles Mexican migration is at a conclusion".

Until just a few years ago, the number of Mexican immigrants living in the US (legally and illegally) had been on a steep incline for decades.

When Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump launched his campaign this summer, he did so with a call to stem immigration from Mexico, which he said had exploded.

While the USA economy has struggled to recover, Mexico has been largely free of the economic slumps which drove generations of people to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s for work.

The drop is mostly due to a decrease of more than 1m unauthorised immigrants from a peak of 6.9m in 2007 to 5.6m in 2014, Pew said.

So, to all the political candidates working themselves into a racist tizzy over what's to be done about all the immigrants who want to come to the USA and exploit its freedoms and resources or whatever: Don't worry.

The authors analyzed US and Mexican census data and a 2014 survey by Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography. "It would be much better to look at things based on real facts, and the real fact is that immigration from Mexico has not only stopped, now it is going the other way", he said. While more than 16 million Mexicans migrated to the United States between 1965 and 2015, researchers say that the recent decline marks the end of this period of mass migration.

Stricter enforcement of US immigration laws, especially on the US-Mexico border, may also have contributed. With Mexico's population aging and its economy steadily growing, he thinks the day will come when Mexico will compete with the United States for young workers. Fewer jobs and less financial opportunity may have discouraged immigrants from arriving or motivated those already here to leave. Between 2009 and 2014, a net total of 140,000 Mexicans have left the United States and returned to Mexico. Between 2009 and 2014, an estimated 870,000 Mexican nationals came to the USA from Mexico-but a million Mexicans went back the other way.

One influential factor in the decline of Mexican citizens entering the country might be a residual effect from the financial crisis, the Pew Center said. And only 35 percent of adults in Mexico say they have friends or relatives they regularly communicate with or visit in the US, down 7 percentage points from 2007, Pew found.

"We have our life here", she said at Fresno's Mexican consulate.