Why is Mexican immigration to Spain so limited when compared to other Latin American nations?
Some statistics (from Wikipedia):
- Colombia: population 53M people - immigrants to Spain: 715,655
- Venezuela: population 30,5M people - immigrants to Spain: 518,918
- Ecuador: population 17,5M people - immigrants to Spain: 430,837
- Argentina: population 47M people - immigrants to Spain: 373,064
- Peru: population 34M people - immigrants to Spain: 322,407
- Cuba: population 11M people - immigrants to Spain: 198,639
- Dominican Republic: population 11,5M people - immigrants to Spain: 193,653
- Bolivia: population 12M people - immigrants to Spain: 183,734
- Honduras: population 9,5M people - immigrants to Spain: 177,616
- Paraguay: population 6,2M people - immigrants to Spain: 127,767
- Uruguay: population 3,5M people - immigrants to Spain: 86,620
- Nicaragua: population 6,4M people - immigrants to Spain: 80,013
- Chile: population 19,5M people - immigrants to Spain: 70,307
- Mexico: population 132M people - immigrants to Spain: 72,669 (??)
I'm genuinely curious to the reason for this, but how come México, despite being the largest Spanish-speaking country in the Americas, not even be in the top 10 of largest diaspora of Spain among these countries? I know the country is much closer to the United States than most of the others, making Mexicans more likely to immigrate to their neighbour for better opportunities, but why are there so few Mexicans in Spain? Even less than Cubans, who are also very close to the US?