Introduction

Over the last few years, prominent voices in American society and politics have argued that immigrants from Mexico come to the United States (US) with many problems, including those related to crime and drug use [1]. This basic sentiment is not new; concern that immigration in general—and, often, immigration from Mexico in particular—is linked with crime and social problems has been a recurring theme in US history [2,3,4]. And yet, a growing body of research suggests that, despite popular perception, immigrants are substantially less likely to experience a wide array of behavioral and psychiatric problems compared to those born in the US [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. However, while numerous studies have examined the prevalence of behavioral and psychiatric problems among immigrants in general, there is a critical need for up-to-date and generalizable evidence that is specific to immigrants from Mexico.

Using nationally representative data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC-III, 2012–2013), the aim of the present study is to address this important gap in the research literature. Specifically, we examine the prevalence of self-reported criminal and violent behavior, substance use disorders, and mental disorders among Mexican immigrants (n = 2035) vis-à-vis the US born (n = 29,896). Moreover, we examine the immigrant-behavioral/psychiatric problem link across gender and time in the US, and test for differences in behavioral and psychiatric problems between immigrants from Mexico and immigrants from other countries.

Method

Sample and procedures

Study findings are based on the NESARC-III data collected between 2012 and 2013 [13]. The NESARC-III is a nationally representative survey of 36,309 non-institutionalized adults ages 18 and older in the US. Utilizing a multistage cluster sampling design and oversampling minority populations, the study interviewed civilian, non-institutionalized individuals living in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Interviewers administered the NIAAA Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule (AUDADIS-5), which provides diagnoses for substance use disorders and related outcomes [14]. Participants had the option of completing the NESARC-III interview in English, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Mandarin, or Cantonese.

Survey measures

Immigrant status Immigrant status was based on the following question: “Were you born in the US?” Consistent with prior NESARC-based studies of immigrants [6, 15], those responding affirmatively were classified as US born and those reporting foreign birth classified as immigrants. Immigrants were asked to report their birth country, age of arrival, and number of years in the US.

Behavioral and psychiatric problems Using the AUDADIS-V, we examined lifetime substance use and psychiatric disorders. Self-reports of lifetime crime/violence were examined using items from the antisocial personality disorder module of the AUDADIS-V. To ensure stable prevalence estimates and allow for examination of subgroups, analyses were conducted only using outcomes with a prevalence of at least 2% in the general population.

Sociodemographic controls Sociodemographic variables commonly used in NESARC-based studies as control variables were included: age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, education level, marital status, region of the US, and urbanicity.

Statistical analyses

Binomial logistic regression was employed to examine the relationship between Mexican immigrant status and behavioral/psychiatric outcomes. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) were considered to be statistically significant if the associated 95% confidence intervals did not cross the 1.00 threshold when controlling for sociodemographic factors. Beyond assessing statistical significance, we also take care to interpret the magnitude, or size, of the odds ratio (small = 1.68, medium = 3.47, large = 6.71 or greater [16]). For all statistical analyses, weighted prevalence estimates and standard errors were computed using the Stata 14.1 SE software. This system implements a Taylor series linearization to adjust the standard errors of estimates for complex survey sampling design effects, including clustered data.

Results

As shown in Table 1, study findings clearly indicate that Mexican immigrants report substantially lower levels of criminal and violent behaviors, substance use disorders, and mental disorders. More precisely, we see that Mexican immigrants are—compared to those born in the US—between roughly four and ten times less likely to report involvement in violent and criminal behavior. We see a similar pattern for substance use disorders as Mexican immigrants were found to be roughly three times less likely than US-born individuals to meet criteria for alcohol use disorder (AOR  0.32, 95% CI  0.27–0.38) and substantially larger differences were identified for cannabis (AOR  0.10, 95% CI  0.05–0.18), cocaine (AOR  0.12, 95% CI  0.06–0.26), and opioid (AOR  0.04, 95% CI  0.01–0.17) use disorders. Mexican immigrants were also between roughly two and three times less likely than the US born to meet criteria for a mental disorder. Notably, all of the aforementioned results were found to be significant while adjusting for a host of sociodemographic confounds, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, education level, marital status, region of the US, and urbanicity.

Table 1 Behavioral and psychiatric problems among Mexican immigrants in the United States
Full size table

Supplementary analyses (available upon request) also examined the stability of the association between Mexican immigrant status and behavioral/psychiatric outcomes. Controlling for the same list of sociodemographic factors, we found very consistent results—in terms of significance and the magnitude of the adjusted odds ratios—while stratifying analyses across gender (i.e., comparing Mexican immigrant males with US-born males, and separately comparing Mexican immigrant females with US-born females) and time spent in the US (i.e., comparing Mexican immigrants with fewer than 10 years in the US with US-born individuals, and separately comparing Mexican immigrants with 10 years or more in the US with US-born individuals). We also found, in comparing Mexican immigrants to immigrants from other countries, that immigrants from Mexico are less likely to experience a number of behavioral/psychiatric problems [i.e., making illegal money (AOR  0.34, 95% CI  0.16–0.69), starting fights (AOR  0.54, 95% CI  0.34–0.87), weapon use (AOR  0.49, 95% CI  0.25–0.99), injuring others (AOR  0.49, 95% CI  0.28–0.86), cannabis use disorder (AOR  0.40, 95%  0.20–0.80), major depressive disorder (AOR  0.72, 95% CI  0.55–0.94), and generalized anxiety disorder (AOR  0.55, 95% CI  0.36–0.85)] and were not different from other immigrants for the remainder of outcomes.

Discussion

These results—based on data from a highly-regarded national survey led by the National Institutes of Health—strongly suggest that Mexican immigrants should not be of greater concern to the US than immigrants from other countries. Indeed, we see clear and compelling results that immigrants from Mexico are substantially less likely than those born in the US to take part in an array of criminal and violent behaviors and to have problems with substance use and mental health. Moreover, this pattern holds while controlling for a large number of sociodemographic factors and is consistent when stratifying the sample by gender (e.g., comparing male Mexican immigrants with US-born males, etc.) and time spent in the US (e.g., comparing immigrants who have been in the US for fewer than 10 years with US-born individuals, etc.). We even see that, for a number of outcomes, Mexican immigrants are less likely to have behavioral and psychiatric problems as compared to immigrants from other countries, and no evidence suggests that Mexican immigrants are more likely than other immigrants to experience such problems.

These findings are consistent with recent research examining behavioral and psychiatric problems among immigrants vis-à-vis the US born [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15, 17, 18]. Importantly, they are also consistent with theorizing suggesting that immigrants, on average, tend to be “healthier” than individuals who do not migrate (both those in their home and receiving countries [19]). These findings are also consistent with theorizing that strong deterrent effects likely influence immigrants in terms of avoiding criminal behaviors [11]. We should note, however, that while most studies suggest that immigrants are less likely than the US born to experience behavioral and psychiatric problems, the results from prior studies are not entirely uniform [20] and there is evidence of a distinct pattern for particular disorders (e.g., psychotic disorders) [21].

The present study should be interpreted in light of several noteworthy limitations. For one, we are unable to account for potential self-report bias, and it is reasonable to assume that—based on the same deterrent logic referenced above—immigrants may be less likely to report involvement in illegal behaviors for fear of deportation. Similarly, it is possible that immigrants may have underreported psychiatric symptoms or that the NESARC measures may not capture culturally-relevant manifestations of particular disorders. A second limitation is that the NESARC data do not allow us to determine whether immigrants are in the US with or without formal authorization. It is possible that authorized and unauthorized Mexican immigrants may have different outcomes that we are unable to measure in the present study. Future research should address these limitations.

Conclusions

In sum, the findings from the present study point to a clear and robust pattern of differences in which Mexican immigrants report markedly lower levels of behavioral and psychiatric problems than US-born individuals. To be sure, like other immigrants, a minority of immigrants from Mexico do, in fact, have serious problems with respect to crime and violence, substance use, and mental health. And yet, we should not lose sight of the fact that Mexican immigrants experience such problems at far lower rates than those born in the US.