by Bill Masterson Published: February 2002 One million Americans now live in Mexico, and 600
by Bill Masterson

Published: February 2002
One million Americans now live in Mexico, and 600,000 of that number are in Mexico City, according to research conducted by a university professor in Mexico. These new projections, substantially greater than what both the Mexican and U.S. Government agencies heretofore have suggested, appear to be nothing more than the byproduct of sloppy research. While the guessing game continues, Mexico has announced a national identity card program for foreign residents, and the creation of a database to track their whereabouts. The national identity card program may finally produce an the answer to the question, "How many Americans live in Mexico?"

The Americans-in-Mexico question was discussed in an earlier article I wrote for this website; instead of moving closer to an answer, however, it now seems that we've moved further away (then again, maybe not). Reports of the new estimates are muddying-up the waters of the discussion, but post-September 11th immigration rule changes in Mexico hold the promise of producing more reliable demographic information about all foreigners in Mexico, not just Americans.

Discussing these new estimates at a September, 2001 meeting of The American Society in Mexico City, Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, social anthropologist Professor Mary Alcocer-Berriozábal, Ph.D., reported that research she conducted for her doctoral thesis (University of Kansas, 2000) indicated that the number of U.S. citizens living in Mexico is 1 million, and that 600,000 of those live in Mexico City.
…..

Of the U.S. citizens residing in Mexico, I think it is generally acknowledged that relatively few of these people formally register their presence in-country with one of the consular offices. (U.S. citizens in Mexico really aren't different than their countrymen in other parts of the world, from what I've read on the citizen-registration issue.) In addition, there are an undetermined number of U.S. citizens who spend varying amounts of time in Mexico on a tourist card (FMT) or with no visa whatsoever (particularly in the approximately 20 mile-wide border zone).

Professor Alcocer told me that an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico reported to her that, "for each American that does report him/herself to the American consulate/embassy in Mexico, he (the official) believes there to be an additional 4 to 5 Americans who do not report because it is not mandatory." That statement doesn't seem far fetched, and when I asked her for the number of Americans the Embassy employee told her had registered, the Professor didn't answer the question…