Mexican Migration Project

The MMP is a multidisciplinary research effort between investigators in Mexico and the United States. It has offices, in Mexico, at the Departamento de Investigacion sobre Movimientos Sociales of the University of Guadalajara and, in the United States, at the Office of Population Research of Princeton University.

The MMP database is the result of an ongoing multidisciplinary study of Mexican Migration to the United States. It contains data gathered since 1982 in surveys administered every year in Mexico and the United States. After surveys are completed in the field, the information contained therein is input into computer format, coded, examined, and then separated into five primary data files, each providing a unique perspective of Mexican migrants, their families, and their experiences.

Public Use Data

MMP data are available for 174 communities in 24 states in Mexico and can be downloaded from this website. The data are available in CSV, STATA, SAS, and SPSS formats. We strongly encourage those users who downloaded the previous versions of the data download the newer version of these data, MMP174, as soon as possible.

The MMP database contains seven primary data files. The first initial file contains a general sociodemographic and migratory information for each member of a surveyed household (PERS). More detailed information on each migratory experience to the U.S. of all heads of household is presented in a second file (MIG). Starting with community #120, we are collecting information on another migrant of the household when the household head was not a migrant resulting in a third file (MIGOTHER). Detailed information on migratory experience to Canada, starting with community #110, of all household heads is presented in a fourth file (CNMIG). A more general characteristics of the household, its members, and other holdings is reserved for a fifth file (HOUSE). Lastly, detailed labor histories for each head of household and each spouse complete the set of data files (LIFE and SPOUSE, respectively).

In addition to the seven primary data files, supplementary data files have been created to provide researchers with additional information that may be useful in analyses of migration. For instance, for all the communities surveyed by the Mexican Migration Project, data at the community and municipio level have been collected and compiled in the COMMUN file.

Registration Required

To access these datasets, please login or register as a user of the data archive.