Friday, Jul 29 2011 3:18PM
Many Mexicans living in California are returning to their home country due to a lack of economic opportunities.
Many Mexican immigrants residing in California are returning to their home country due to limited employment and economic opportunities, reports say.
The Public Policy Institute of California reports roughly a quarter of a million unauthorized immigrants have left California in recent years, many of whom lived in rural areas of the state working as laborers or farmers.
Many residents are moving back to find work in Mexico, where the unemployment rate is nearly half of California's this year. Additionally, other economic factors, such as the country's improving economy and growing middle class, are enticing Mexicans to leave California, where economic conditions are stagnant.
"They're going back home because they can't get medical help or government assistance anymore, and when it's getting so difficult for them to find a job without proper documentation, it's pushing them away," Sylvina Frausto, secretary of Holy Rosary Church in Woodland, told Scripps Howard News Service.
Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show California's per-capita income in rural areas dropped from 2008 to 2009, while the estimated poverty rate jumped to 16 percent.