Many members of the American Mexican community have dual nationality, and among them are entrepreneurs, businessmen, sports professionals, entertainers, artists, religious ministers, academics, and students.

This included settlements in the northern territories of Alta California, Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Mexican Texas.

The first empresarial grant in Texas had been made under Spanish control to Stephen F. Austin, whose settlers, known as the Old Three Hundred, settled along the Brazos River in 1822.

Mexico once recognized citizens born in the territory lost in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to protect their property, farms, and ranches.

During the Porfiriato, foreign businessmen were welcomed into the country in order to help with Mexico's modernization through enterprises such as railroad construction and mineral exploitation.

In an attempt to settle and industrialize rural areas, particularly the sparsely populated northern states, the Porfirian government encouraged organized settlements by Mexicans and foreigners.

During the Cold War, Mexico was a country of refuge for political leftists, and received various American exiles, notably from the film industry.

An example was Elizabeth Catlett, prominent African-American artist who was declared an "undesirable alien" by the US government as a result of suspected Communist affiliations.

Recent migrants can be categorized into three broad categories: retired individuals (which tend to congregate in American enclaves like Ajijic or San Miguel de Allende), professionals working in Mexico (tending to reside in large cities like Monterrey or Mexico City) and the Mexican children born in America (who can be found throughout the country).

[11] According to 2015 data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), more than 280,000 children born in the US and now living in Mexico, do not have sufficient documentation to prove their Mexican identity.

[17] Also common among this group is the lobbying of local governments on a range of issues such as development, security, sanitation and historical preservation.

[17] Most Mexicans of American descent are Christians, either Catholic, Protestant or Mormon (including both Latter-day Saints and various breakaway sects).

[21] American-born Jews established the Beth Israel Community Center in 1957,[22] the first English-speaking congregation in Mexico and one of the first Conservative synagogues in Latin America.