Educators are leaving Mexico for better wages and opportunity

Global Business

Mexico has long had a problem retaining skilled teachers who seek employment in other countries offering incentives. Despite increased spending by Mexican employers to keep academics from looking elsewhere, many professors still see opportunities across the border as a better bet.


CCTV’s Ginger Vaughn reported this in Houston.

Educators are leaving Mexico for better wages and opportunity

Mexico has long had a problem retaining skilled teachers who seek employment in other countries offering incentives. Despite increased spending by Mexican employers to keep academics from looking elsewhere, many professors still see opportunities across the border as a better bet.

More details: 

  • One immigration scholar says there are about 15-thousand students from Mexico in the U-S and a third will stay and not go back because Mexico doesn’t have the funding and wage incentives to compete.
  • Mexico is trying to stop the “brain drain” by investing more than $30 million to keep talented researchers from leaving and attract expatriates to come back but it may not be enough.
  • Entry-level professors in Mexico are paid about a third as much as their counterparts in the U-S, according to the Center for Research and Teaching Economics.
  • According to the World Bank, Mexico spent just half-a-percent of its GDP on research and development in 2011, while the U.S. invested more than five times that.