In this article, we analyse patterns of emigration and return of Mexican communities located in traditionally emitting regions and in new migration communities. Traditional regions of origin are located in the most western states of Mexico, while the new ones are located in the south of Mexico City or near the Mexico-US border. We make estimates of discreet event history models predicting the probability of departure and return on first trips to the US, and of departure and return on subsequent trips to the US. In both types of communities, we find that social capital is instrumental in increasing the exit probabilities in expressing the starting probabilities of subsequent trips, which are more influenced by human capital related to migration. Migrants from both groups of communities use international migration as a means to finance the acquisition of housing and business, but migrants from new sending communities look first for business and then real estate, while among those from traditional communities it is the reverse. Efforts by the United States to prevent migrations between Mexico and the United States by militarising the border have failed, especially among migrants from traditional sending communities with well-established migratory traditions and access to specific human and social capital to migration.