Most of the estimated 6.3 million Mexicans who are in the United States entered illegally because of family connections and better job opportunities, according to a new survey, USA Today newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Total unemployment and destitution had little to do with the reasons for the Mexicans crossing the border, the newspaper reported, citing the survey by Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based nonprofit research group.

The survey of 4,836 Mexicans, most of them believed to be here illegally, showed that only 5 percent of respondents who have been in the United States for two years or less were jobless in Mexico.

The typical motivation of these immigrants was opportunity and long-term prospects, Rakesh Kochhar, author of the report, was quoted as saying.

The survey was conducted in Spanish at Mexican consulates in seven U.S. cities over seven months from July 2004 to January 2005. Those surveyed were applying for identity cards, and most were believed to have been in the United States illegally.

The survey found more than 80 percent of respondents had a relative other than a spouse or child in the United States, and undocumented Mexican immigrants have few problems getting a job.

Newcomers from Mexico are less likely to work in a farm than those who came in previous decades. Most of them work in construction, hospitals and manufacturing.

Source: Xinhua