Washington, December 7 (RHC)-- More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have migrated to the country since the end of the Great Recession, according to a new analysis.

More than one million Mexicans and their families have left the U.S. between 2009 and 2014, while 870,000 Mexicans have entered the country, according to a study published by the Pew Research Center.

Most Mexicans leaving the U.S. are doing so voluntarily to reunite with their family or to start one, the report showed. An increasing number of Mexicans say life north of the border is neither better nor worse than life in Mexico, Pew said.

In 2012, Pew had conducted another study, concluding that net migration between the two countries was nearing zero. Over 16 million Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. from 1965 to 2015, more than from any other country.

Pew noted that the number of Mexicans currently living in the U.S. stands at about 11.7 million, down from a peak of 12.8 million in 2007. The figure Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally has also decreased, reaching 5.6 million compared to the 6.9 million in 2007.

However, Dowell Myers, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California believes that the real reason is lack of jobs and proper employment in the United States that prompts migrants to leave the country.