Being that Mexicans and Latinos have geographic and demographic similarities, it was decided to compare FB Mexicans to FB Latinos. To further the comparison, the decision was made to compare these two ethnically similar groups to all other FB groups residing in New York City. It is important to note that for the purposes of this project, the Dominicans (a different group profiled for this assignment) are included in the FB Latino group. Being that the Mexicans and Latinos have ethnic ties, it then makes sense that their English proficiency correlates. Although a minimal sector of both FB Mexicans and FB Latinos speak only English at home, around half of both groups (35% of Mexicans and 51% of Latinos) speak English very well in addition to another language at home. That is to say, that out of the178,551  Mexicans over the age of 5 who are foreign born, only   63,078 speak English very well. While there are 782,075 FB Latinos in New York City, 402,163 of them speak English very well. It can then be implied that the FB Mexicans are not on par with the FB Latinos in New York–FB Mexicans are lagging behind in their integration experience. From an integration standpoint, although both groups only speak English as a sole language at home minimally, they still speak the English language in addition to their native language. The English proficiency of these groups is key in understanding how they incorporate into New York City society and most importantly the work force.

The comparison between foreign born Mexicans and foreign born Dominicans was made due to the numerous cultural ties that these nations share. The correlation is further shown in the graph above, where foreign born Mexicans and foreign born Dominicans have close educational attainment statistics. A high percentage of the population did not even graduate high school and a very small percentage pursued a higher education. To add, there is a large disparity in population. There are 287,592 Dominicans over 25 and 75,295 Mexicans over the age of 25. These statistics suggests that both these immigrant groups face difficulties in assimilating and pursuing education. Ultimately, the lack of education also means a lack of high skilled labor, causing a barrier for socio-economic mobility.

Figure 1 Source: ACS 2009-2011

The working force among foreign-born Mexicans seems to be very different then other foreign-born Latino groups and all other foreign-born people living in New York City. As the data shows, the percentage of working males among foreign-born Mexicans is almost the same as the amount of males who are of working-age; this is very different than the foreign-born Latino and all foreign-born groups, who’s statistics are very similar. A larger percentage of male Mexicans are working than all other foreign-born groups. Yet female participation in the labor force among foreign-born Mexicans is a full 12% less than all other foreign-born groups. Part of this may be attributed to the fact that there are less Mexican females of working age among the foreign-born population, but still, there is a higher percentage of the foreign-born Mexican population of females not in the labor force compared to those in the labor force. The Mexican tradition of patriarchy also supports this data, yet other foreign-born Latino groups show to be more in line with other foreign-born groups, showing a trend of assimilation.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. 2009-2011. American Community Survey, 3-year estimates 2009-2011. (IPUMS data analyzed by John Mollenkopf).