page_title: White Mexicans
section_title: Examples of ethnic European groups in Mexico
hierarchical_section_title: White Mexicans / Examples of ethnic European groups in Mexico
context_page_description: White Mexicans are Mexican citizens who are considered white, typically due to European or Middle Eastern descent. While the Mexican government does conduct ethnic censuses in which a Mexican has the option of identifying as "White" the results obtained from these censuses are not published. What Mexico's government publishes instead is the percentage of "light-skinned Mexicans" there are in the country, with it being 47% in 2010 and 49% in 2017. Due to its less directly racial undertones, the term "Light-skinned Mexican" has been favored by the government and media outlets over "White Mexican" as the go-to choice to refer to the segment of Mexico's population who possess European physical traits when discussing different ethno-racial dynamics in Mexico's society. Nonetheless, sometimes "White Mexican" is used.
  Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both methodology and percentages given; unofficial sources such as the World Factbook and Encyclopædia Britannica, which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations, calculate the White Mexican population as only 9% or between one tenth to one fifth of the population.
context_section_description: One of the few Porfirian-era European settlements to survive to this day is centered on the small town of Chipilo in the state of Puebla. They are the descendants of about 500 Italian refugee immigrants which came over in the 1880s, keeping their Venetian-derived dialect and distinct ethnic identity, even though many  have intermarried with other Mexicans. Many still farm and raise livestock but economic changes have pushed many into industry.
  During the Mexican Revolution, Álvaro Obregón invited a group of German-speaking Mennonites in Canada to resettle in Chihuahua state. By the late 1920s, almost 10,000 had arrived from both Canada and Europe. Today, Mexico accounts for about 42% of all Mennonites in Latin America. Mennonites in the country stand out because of their light skin, hair and eyes. They are a largely insular community that speaks Plautdietsch and wear traditional clothing. They own their own businesses in various communities in Chihuahua, and account for about half of the state's farm economy, standing out in cheese production.
  Immigration was restricted by governments after Diaz's but never stopped entirely during the 20th century. Between 1937 and 1948, more than 18,000 Spanish Republicans arrived as refugees from the Nationalists and Francoist Spain. Their reception by the Mexican criollo elite was mixed but they manage to experience success as most of these newcomers were educated as scholars and artists. This group founded the Colegio de Mexico, one of the country's top academic institutions. Despite attempts to assimilate these immigrant groups, especially the country's already existing German population during World War II, they remain mostly separate to this day.
  Due to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the resulting economic decline and high unemployment in Spain, many Spaniards have been emigrating to Mexico to seek new opportunities. For example, during the last quarter of 2012, a number of 7,630 work permits were granted to Spaniards. Other Southern Europeans joined the Spaniards in the 2010’s by finding better work opportunities in Mexico with thousands of Italians, Portuguese, French and Greeks finding professional opportunities along with the Spaniards in Mexico. 
  Sixty-seven percent of Latin America's English-speaking population lives in Mexico. Most of these are American nationals, with an influx of people from the U.S. coming to live in Mexico since the 1930s, becoming the largest group of foreigners in the country since then. However, most Americans in Mexico are not immigrants in the traditional sense, as they are there living as retirees or otherwise do not consider themselves permanent residents.
caption: Santiago Creel descendant of the Creel-Terrazas family, son of René Creel Luján, one of the founders of the National Action Party.
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