The Mexican migration to the United States and substance use in northern Mexico

Abstract

Aims-To examine the impact of migration to the US on substance use and substance use disorders in three urban areas of Northern Mexico.Design-Cross-sectional survey of immigration related experiences and lifetime and past-year alcohol and drug use, in a representative sample of respondents ages 12 to 65.Setting-Interviews were conducted in the cities of Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Monterrey during 2005. Respondents were classified into three groups: 1) "return migrants", 2) "relatives of migrants" and 3) "others in the general population".Findings-A total of 1,630 completed interviews were obtained for a response rate of 70.5%. "Return migrants" were more likely to have used alcohol, marijuana or cocaine at least once in their lifetime and in the last 12-months, more likely to develop a substance use disorder, and more likely to have a 12-month substance use disorder, compared with "others in the general population". Among "return migrants", longer length of time in the US and type of work performed as an immigrant were related to higher prevalence of substance use. Among "relatives of migrants", migration experiences were not associated with increased prevalence of substance use compared with "others in the general population".Conclusion-This study found a link between migration to the US and the transformation of substance use norms and pathology in Mexico. Future research of pre-migration involvement in substance use and data on the timing of events among return migrants is needed. Public health measures are likely to require cross-border coordination of research and service development.

Alcohol Use Behaviors Among Indigenous Migrants: A Transnational Study on Communities of Origin and Destination

“…Consistent with previous research, our findings suggest an association between at-risk drinking and having migrated to the US [11, 19]. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find an effect between longer time in the US and hazardous drinking behaviors.…”

“…This study suggests the importance of domestic migration in shaping alcohol use behaviors among indigenous populations. Previous studies of Mexican migration and substance use focus almost exclusively on US migration [10–12, 16, 19, 42]. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate the impact of domestic migration within Mexico on alcohol use within an indigenous community.…”

“…Within this context, domestic migrants may experience increased risk of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence. The impact of domestic migration on shaping alcohol use behaviors is poorly understood—research focusing on migration and substance use has focused almost exclusively on international migration—which warrants further investigation [11, 13, 17, 19, 20]. …”

Substance Use Disorders Among First- and Second-Generation Immigrant Adults in the United States: Evidence of an Immigrant Paradox?

“…The vast majority of these studies are limited in generalizability inasmuch as they use samples of youth from particular national/ethnic groups or specifi c regions of the United States (Turner and Gil, 2002). Investigations from adult samples focused on emigrants from Mexico (Borges et al, 2009(Borges et al, , 2012, the former Soviet Union (Guarino et al, 2012), Asia (Moloney et al, 2008;Wong et al, 2007), and Latin America (Alegría et al, 2008;Ojeda et al, 2008) have found trends similar to those identifi ed in younger samples. Studies of adults in the United States have been hampered by their inability to examine the stability of the relationship between substance use and immigration across multiple immigrant generations or among emigrants from various regions of the world (Johnson et al, 2002;Li and Wen, 2013;Salas-Wright and Vaughn, 2014).…”

Substance Use by Immigrant Generation in a U.S.-Mexico Border City

“…In Los Angeles, foreign-born Mexicans have lower illicit drug use rates than do U.S.-born Mexican-Americans [11]. Moreover, among residents in border cities in Mexico, lifetime or past-year use of such drugs as alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine is more prevalent for those who had lived in the United States compared to those without a history of migration [12]. In a 2009-2010 study conducted with Mexican migrants in Tijuana, rates of substance use varied by migration stage.…”