More Mexicans Are Sending Money to Help Out Relatives in the U.S.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141464/more_mexicans_are_sending_money_to_help_out_relatives_in_the_u.s./?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

By Frontera NorteSur, New America Media. Posted July 23, 2009.

Latinos, who have suffered disproportionately from the effects of the recession, are now relying more on their relatives down south.

For decades, money sent home by Mexicans working in the United States has been a key pillar of the Mexican economy. Now, scattered reports are surfacing of Mexicans sending money to support relatives in the United States hard hit by the economic crisis north of the border. Latinos, especially immigrants, are suffering a disproportionate share of the joblessness that is officially rising to engulf close to 10 percent of the overall U.S. population.

According to Chihuahua state tourism department official Demetrio Sotomayor Cuellar, a 21 percent decrease over last year in the number of “paisanos” (Mexican immigrants traveling home for visits) crossing the Chihuahua border from June 26 to July 14 led officials to investigate the visitor drop. In the course of the probe, Sotomayor said, officials ran across unusual reports in the hands of Mexico’s Interior Ministry.

Much to their surprise, officials learned that some Mexicans were financially sustaining their migrant relatives in the United States. “This was something that was never seen before and now it is,” Sotomayor said. “Family members who are employed in Mexico are sending money to those relatives who are unemployed in the United States.”

Nonetheless, it is difficult to know whether money flowing northward to unemployed Mexican immigrants constitutes a significant stream of revenue not only for migrant households but also for U.S. tax revenues that finance services used by native-born U.S. citizens. The federal Interior Minister has not made public the reports cited by Sotomayor, and Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics has not started systematically compiling data on transfers on money to migrants in the U.S.

Confronted with a growing unemployment problem at home, most Mexicans would seem hard-pressed to send large amounts of money to El Norte. However, alternative sources of cash are still readily available in Mexico. Pawn shops, payday-type lenders and loan sharks of all shapes and sizes are popping up everywhere; in Guadalajara, a 24-hour pawn shop is even open for business.

One thing is certain: the sharp decrease in remittances sent from the United States is hitting many Mexican households. The reduced remittance flow implies serious implications for the ability of Mexico's federal government, which is heavily dependent on a 15 percent sales tax, to support social programs.

FULL story at link.

[izquierdista]

1. Sotomayor wrote this?

Is he going to have to 'splain what it means to Jeff Sessions?

[blaze]

2. Wow!

But then, I guess I shouldn't be entirely surprised. What with the US being in debt to Mexico and all....