Mexico sends a high percentage of foreign-born workers to the United States. Only a professional background search company, such as Global Backgrounds, can adequately verify the value of potential foreign born employees through international background checks.
Mexico, which shares a long border with the U.S., has sent more immigrants to the U.S. than any other country, according to the Pew Research Center, a non-profit U.S.-based fact generator. That means the likelihood of a U.S.company interviewing and finding interest in a Mexican-born job applicant is higher than for almost any other nationality.
Although the rate of immigration from Mexico has been declining in recent years, Mexican-born people still account for about 25 percent of all foreign-born residents in the U.S. That’s almost as high a percentage as the 28 percent for all Asian nationalities combined. The U.S.-based non-partisan Migration Policy Institute notes that over one-third of all employed foreign-born workers are from Central America — 7.1 million of 18.9 million employed foreign-born workers in the U.S. at the time of this study. Although the institute does not give exact figures for how many of the Central American workers here are from Mexico, it says that Mexican-born workers primarily make up the whole of Central American workers. Other sizable Central American blocs come from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
When those Mexican immigrants have green cards, which permit them to work in the U.S. legally, background checks are important tools for U.S. employers looking to verify credentials.
Foreign-born workers make up about 17 percent of the U.S. labor force, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Mexican-born workers number significantly among them. Of all Latino immigrants in the U.S., 62 percent are Mexican-born, and of all Latino workers in the U.S., about 15 percent are Mexican.
Mexico’s ARCO Rights
Mexico has more intricate background check laws than some other Latino countries. One of the most stringent, however, which guarantees Mexican citizens ARCO rights — Access, Rectification, Cancellation and Opposition — does not affect background data gathered by U.S.-based background search companies such as Global Backgrounds. That ensures faster processing.
Obtaining Permission
Permission must be obtained from Mexican nationals before data can be searched in Mexico.
Mexican law, unlike U.S. law, also provides for tacit consent. If a Mexican citizen receives a copy of a privacy notice and does not object to processing, the background check may proceed.
Global Backgrounds, however, requires written permission from every subject of its background checks, regardless of where the subject might have been born or worked. The Global Backgrounds policy is safe, fair, and sure to meet U.S. legal requirements for obtaining a job applicant’s permission.
Candidates for jobs with any U.S. company may refuse to allow a background check, but a U.S. employer may reject an applicant based on the refusal.
Information considered private in Mexico is similar to that considered off-limits in the U.S. Considered private in Mexico are racial origins; ethnic origins; health conditions; genetic information; personal beliefs, including religious, philosophical and moral; membership in trade unions; political opinions; and sexual orientation.
Our International Background Check Services for Mexico
Here are the international background checks that U.S. employers should have Global Backgrounds professionals perform on Mexican nationals, whose backgrounds would not be revealed in domestic checks alone:
Employment
Global Backgrounds will verify up to seven years of employment in Mexico.
Education
Global Backgrounds can verify the highest level of education attained in Mexico. Typically Mexican institutions of higher learning will supply degrees earned, dates attended, and graduation date.
It’s unlikely that a Mexican university will supply grades earned, but an employer can require applicants to obtain that information themselves and submit it to the employer or have it mailed directly to the employer.
Identity
When job candidates are foreign-born, it’s a best practice to verify their identity, which international background searches can do. With Latino job candidates, cultural factors make it important to also obtain the maiden name of the candidate’s mother.
Criminal Records
Even if foreign born, a Mexican citizen applying for a job in the U.S. gets the same protections here as do other job applicants. Your Global Backgrounds professional knows when to apply such safeguards as ban-the-box laws, which are in force in an increasing number of states and cities. In contrast to the U.S. justice system, where criminal records are typically evident in criminal court records on the local or county level, Mexico’s criminal records are found on the state level. Criminal background checks can reveal violations that would affect applicants for jobs that deal with children or the elderly, where clean criminal records involving related offenses are critical for licensing and insurance purposes.
Global Backgrounds also knows when to obtain additional information necessary to do criminal background searches in Mexico, such as the maiden name of the job candidate or job candidate’s mother.
Civil Court Records
A civil court check can turn up important legal matters that a criminal check won’t. For instance, slander, a failure to pay bills, landlord-tenant disputes, or discrimination complaints, all important indicators of a candidate’s character, might be reflected in civil court records.
Driving Records
Knowledge of Mexican driving infractions becomes especially important if the Mexican-born applicant will be driving corporate vehicles in the United States. That might be for jobs such as a regional or long-haul truck driver, a delivery driver, a school bus driver, or a service company employee whose job would include driving but would not be primarily behind the wheel. A janitorial services worker, for instance, might have to drive a company-owned or leased van to job sites frequently or even daily.
Mexican courts make driving records available to background searchers. Driving record checks, typically performed on the state level in Mexico, are likely to disclose DUIs or other serious road-going violations.
Credit Report, Economic Factors
Global Backgrounds can perform a credit report from data in Mexico. This is recommended not only for Mexican nationals applying for jobs in the U.S., but also for Mexican immigrants who have become U.S. citizens but worked for a time in their native country. It’s also a best practice to order a Mexican credit report on any U.S. job candidate who has spent considerable time in Mexico, including a native-born U.S. citizen who worked for a company there. It’s also a good idea if the candidate owns or has owned property there.
A credit check in Mexico by Global Backgrounds includes a civil court check. That could show data on such things as disputed or slow payments, or claims that the subject failed to pay domestic workers or contractors.
Watch Lists
Global Backgrounds will check to see if a candidate's name appears on no-fly lists and terrorist watch lists.
More Information
Contact Global Backgrounds for details on its domestic and international background search services for Mexico and other nations. Telephone 877.70.GLOBAL (877-704-5622) or contact us using our online quick-response form.