163 Factors that Influence Migration Agustín Escobar Latapí, Philip Martin, Gustavo López Castro & Katharine Donato Executive Summary T his report examines the factors that cause people to cross the Mexican- U.S. border and work temporarily or settle outside their country of citizen- ship, and assesses the factors that sustain such migration over time. Most of the cross-border labor and settlement migration involves Mexicans moving to the U.S.; this report therefore focuses on factors that influence and sustain Mexico- U.S. migration. 1 In absolute terms, the United States is the world’s major country of immigration, and Mexico is the world’s major country of emigration. The U.S. accepted 916,000 legal immigrants in FY96, more than any other country, plus 275,000 unauthorized settlers. About 165,000 of these legal U.S. immigrants were Mexican nationals; if another 125,000 unauthorized settlers were Mexican nationals, then Mexican immi- gration to the U.S. in FY96 exceeded total immigration to Canada in 1996, which was about 225,000, and was nine times the immigration of 100,000 foreigners to Australia. The best estimates suggest that there were 7 million to 7.3 million Mexican- born residents in the U.S. in 1996, including 4.7 to 4.9 Mexican-born residents