For decades, the migration debate in the United States has focused overwhelmingly on what happens at the border. But by the time a family reaches the border, the most important decisions have often already been made.
Those decisions begin much earlier: in communities where a stable life may feel increasingly out of reach. A job matters. Public safety matters. Education and health care matter. But all of those elements come together in one physical place: the home.
If we want fewer Mexican families to feel compelled to leave their communities in search of stability elsewhere, we must make it possible for them to build a dignified future at home. Affordable housing is not the only answer to migration, but it is one of the most practical and underappreciated foundations of any serious solution.
Mexico’s housing challenge is enormous. According to Mexico’s National Housing Commission, 8.38 million homes (21.9 percent of the national housing stock) were in a condition of housing deprivation in 2024. Roughly 30.45 million people lived in those homes. The official definition includes dwellings built with precarious or deteriorated materials, homes without a toilet, and households living in overcrowded conditions.
These figures should not be confused with a simple shortage of 8.38 million newly built units. Much of the challenge can and should be addressed through home improvement, expansion, basic services, regularization and better financing. But the scale is unmistakable: nearly one in every four people in Mexico lives in inadequate housing conditions.
That is not merely a real estate problem. It is a question of family stability, economic mobility and, ultimately, whether people believe they can build a future where they already belong.
A Home is the Platform for Everything Else
Abraham Maslow’s familiar hierarchy of needs helps explain why housing has such a powerful role. Shelter relates first to our most basic physiological needs and then to safety: a secure place to sleep, protect one’s children, preserve possessions and plan beyond tomorrow.
Once that foundation exists, a family can pursue the next levels of well-being with greater confidence. Children can remain in school. Parents can maintain stable employment. Families can form lasting relationships with neighbors, teachers and local institutions. A household can save, borrow, start a small business and accumulate an asset that may be passed to the next generation.
A home is therefore much more than four walls. It is the center of the family and the point from which people reach the rest of society.
But location determines whether that promise is real. A low-cost house isolated from employment, transportation, schools, parks, child care and clinics is not truly affordable. Families pay the difference in commuting time, transportation costs, missed opportunities and diminished quality of life. Mexico has already learned the cost of producing housing at scale without sufficient attention to location and community infrastructure.
The right objective is not simply to build more units. It is to create complete communities.
Migration is a decision about the future
People migrate for many reasons: wages, violence, family reunification, environmental pressures and the search for opportunity. Housing alone cannot resolve all of them, and it would be irresponsible to suggest otherwise.
Yet secure, affordable and well-located housing can change the calculation a family makes.
Migration frequently involves an exchange of certainties. People leave behind relatives, culture, language and community because the possibility of a better future outweighs the security of remaining. When a family has a decent home near employment and essential services, staying is no longer merely an emotional preference; it becomes a viable economic choice.
That distinction matters. The goal should never be to prevent people from exercising the freedom to migrate. The goal should be to reduce forced choices; to ensure that leaving one’s country is an option, not the only credible path to security and advancement.
Seen this way, affordable housing becomes a form of migration resilience. It gives families roots, reduces vulnerability and allows local opportunity to compound over time.
A Shared North American Interest
For the United States, investing in stability inside Mexico should not be understood as charity. It is a pragmatic investment in a more balanced and prosperous North America.
Mexico and the United States already share deeply integrated supply chains, labor markets and communities. Stronger Mexican cities mean a more reliable workforce, greater consumer demand, more resilient nearshoring corridors and less pressure generated by economic displacement. Housing investment also creates local employment immediately—in construction, materials, transportation, professional services and neighborhood commerce.
The most effective strategy would combine Mexican public policy, responsible private development and long-term institutional capital. Development banks, multilateral institutions, pension funds, commercial lenders and impact investors can each play a role, provided that public support is transparent and directed toward the households that need it most.
Different families require different solutions. Some need a new home. Others need an affordable rental unit near work. Millions need financing to improve or expand a home they already occupy. Informal workers require underwriting models that recognize real income without demanding a conventional payroll history. Communities need serviced land and clear property rights. Cities need zoning and permitting systems that make well-located affordable housing financially possible.
This cannot be solved with one standardized product. It requires a portfolio of solutions and a disciplined focus on the true cost of living.
From Housing Units to Complete Communities
A serious affordable-housing strategy should follow five principles.
First, build close to opportunity. Housing must connect families to jobs, transit and existing urban infrastructure.
Second, design around the family. Safe streets, parks, schools, child care and health clinics are not decorative amenities; they are part of the housing solution.
Third, use public support to mobilize private capital. Well-designed guarantees, subsidies, concessional financing and public land can reduce risk and make projects viable without abandoning accountability.
Fourth, serve the informal economy. A large share of Mexican workers remains excluded from traditional mortgage finance. New rental, rent-to-own, microfinance and incremental-construction models must reflect how households actually earn and live.
Fifth, measure human outcomes, not only completed units. Success should include school continuity, commute times, access to health services, household financial resilience, neighborhood safety and long-term occupancy.
Mexico does not need housing that photographs well on opening day and fails families over the following decade. It needs communities where children can grow, parents can work and families can imagine a future.
The Choice to Stay
The United States will continue to debate border enforcement, legal pathways and the future of immigration. Those discussions are necessary. But they address migration at the end of the process.
A more durable strategy begins where the decision to migrate is formed: at the family table, in the neighborhood and inside the home.
When people have a secure place to live, a school for their children, a clinic nearby, a park in which a community can gather and a realistic path to economic advancement, the future changes. The house becomes an anchor—not an anchor that confines people, but one that gives them the freedom to choose their future from a position of stability.
The most humane migration policy is not built only at a border. It is built in the communities people do not want to leave.
Note: The images used for this opinion piece were generated with the assistance of AI.
About the author
Federico Carlos Cerdas Ortiz is a graduate of Tecnológico de Monterrey and holds a master’s degree from IPADE Business School. He has dedicated nearly 25 years to housing development in Mexico.
Sources
Comisión Nacional de Vivienda, Actualización del cálculo del Rezago Habitacional 2024, published in 2025.
Sistema Nacional de Información e Indicadores de Vivienda, key housing-sector indicators.
World Bank, Affordable Housing for the Poorest in Mexico, published in 2022.
