| | |  Editorials | Issues | September 2009 
Survey: 75% of Mexicans Unhappy with Country
 Catherine E. Shoichet - Associated Press
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September 24, 2009
 |  | More than half of the respondents said people who moved north to the U.S. have better lives now. |  | | |
Mexico City — Mexicans are overwhelmingly unhappy with the direction of their country, and one in three would immigrate to the United States if they could, a Pew Research Center survey said Wednesday.
Of those in the poll who said they would like to migrate, more than half said they would be willing to do so illegally.
The poll of 1,000 people in Mexico found crime, government corruption and illegal drugs are major problems.
Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed said they are unhappy about Mexico's direction. Nearly all of those polled – 94 percent – said corrupt political leaders are a big problem.
Still, 68 percent held favorable opinions of President Felipe Calderon, 83 percent said they supported using the Mexican army to fight drug traffickers and 76 percent approved of the government's handling of the spring swine flu outbreak.
The survey revealed the close ties between Mexico and the U.S., with 39 percent of those interviewed saying they have friends or relatives north of the border. Nearly 20 percent said they receive money from relatives living in another country.
More than half of the respondents said people who moved north to the U.S. have better lives now.
But many immigrants are losing their jobs and facing significant financial problems in the U.S. because of the recession, said Rene Magana, president of the Chicago office of the International Coalition of Mexicans Abroad.
"The American Dream is a fallacy," he said.
The survey buttressed that argument. Forty percent of those interviewed said they know someone who had returned to Mexico because they could not find work in the U.S. Almost 50 percent said they know someone who came back after being detained by immigration officers at the border.
The survey, part of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, was based on face-to-face interviews in Mexico from May 26 to June 2. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. |
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