More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have migrated to the U.S. since the end of the Great Recession, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from both countries, By Ana Gonzalez-Barrera.

From 2009 to 2014, 1 million Mexicans and their families (including U.S.-born children) left the U.S. for Mexico, according to data from the 2014 Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID). U.S. census data for the same period show an estimated 870,000 Mexican nationals left Mexico to come to the U.S. This means that the net flow from Mexico to the U.S. is now negative, with a net loss of about 140,000 from 2009 to 2014.

A majority of the 1 million who left the U.S. for Mexico between 2009 and 2014 left of their own accord, according to the Mexican government’s ENADID survey data. Six-in-ten (61%) return migrants – those who reported they had been living in the U.S. five years earlier but as of 2014 were back in Mexico – cited family reunification as the main reason for their return. By comparison, 14% of Mexico’s return migrants said the reason for their return was deportation from the U.S., and only a small share (6%) gave employment reasons.

The overall flow of Mexican immigrants between the two countries is at its smallest since the 1990s, mostly due to a drop in the number of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S. This decline is likely due to several factors, including the slow recovery of the U.S. economy after the Great Recession and stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, particularly at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read the complete report at the Pew Research Center website.