The Sex Selectivity of Mexican Immigrant Children

Demographers for long have observed sex selection among people who migrate. For example, in the case of Mexico, while men have for long dominated the flows of immigrants entering the United States, this trend is shifting somewhat. Less attention, however, has been focused on the sex selectivity of children. In particular, it is not known whether children born in Mexico and living in the United States are more likely to be boys or girls. This paper examines the sex selectivity of foreign-born Mexican-origin children living in the United States across five periods (1980, 1990, 2000, 2005-2007, and 2008-2010). The results of this analysis suggest that there is a greater than expected number of boys among foreign-born Mexican-origin children living in the United States.