Money Sent Home by Mexicans in US Drops 12 Percent

From today's NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-LT-Mexico-Economy.html The trickle down theory is going to make us wet. See the last paragraph.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexicans living in the U.S. sent home 12 percent less money in August, the largest drop on record since the Bank of Mexico began tracking remittances 12 years ago, the central bank reported on Wednesday.

Remittances began dropping early this year, economically stranding many small towns and neighborhoods that live off the stipends. The Bank of Mexico said remittances will likely continue to fall in the coming months because of the ''difficult problems the U.S. economy faces.''

The bank said remittances in August dropped 12 percent to US$1.9 billion. That compares to US$2.2 billion in August 2007.

Migrants living in the U.S. have sent home US$15.5 billion in the first eight months of this year, 4 percent less than the same period the year before.

A slowing U.S. economy and stepped up immigration enforcement by the U.S. government, including record deportations and increased border security, are behind the drop.

Remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income, next to oil exports.

Nearly all of it comes from the United States, home to 98 percent of Mexicans living abroad. At least 11 million Mexicans live in the United States.

Mexico's economy has largely weathered the global economic crisis, buoyed by a national housing boom and government-funded infrastructure programs.

But Treasury Secretary Agustin Carstens said this week that Mexico will still be hit by the global crisis, as tourism drops and continued volatility deflates oil and other commodity prices. He has lowered his annual growth forecast for Mexico to 2.5 percent. Bolds mine

 

Interesting. I was just thinking a few minutes ago how rather nice it is to be living in a largely cash-based economy with a home that is paid off and no debt of any kind..while this credit mess in the states is going on.

On the other hand, my stocks have been dropping lots and lots and I'm now wishing I had moved a bit more into bonds last year...the best path through this for me is to just NOT LOOK at my investments and keep that mantra running through my head ("I'm a long-term investor, I'm a long-term investor, I'm a long-term investor.").

 

Ive got a spare mattress in the basement Steve. :wink: :wink: The rate is the pits but no crime so it is relatively safe. Of interest are there canadian banks in your area. I can't say internationally but here the regs don't allow things to get quite so out of hand here.

 

Re:Money Sent Home by Mexicans in US Drops 12 %

Thats the tip of the iceberg. Its now estimated that as many as 15-20 million illegal immigrants may be in the USA ( most from Mexico ) costing the tax payers countless billions of dollars in net tax loss. If they get "Amnesty" then these 15-20 Million illegal immigrants can then bring in 30-45 million family members, right into our welfare and social services programs under the family re-unification programs called "Chain immigration". And this does not include the 300,000 "Anchor Babies" a year. Those who cross illegally to get US citizenship for the baby so that these illegal imigrants can then collect thousands of dollars a year from the US tax payer till the child is 18 years old. At that time the baby can then bring in their entire family. Thats 300,000 per year, on top of the estimated 1.5 million that cross illegally per year. Thats a net loss of BILLIONS of more tax dolars gone for ever. These reward and drive more illegal immigrants into the USA every year. The Democrats try to exploit them by trying to get them to vote for Democrats in exchange the democrats keep loop holes in laws to continue the flow of illegal immigration.

 

In an effort to avoid the politically charged last post, I will return to the original topic.

Note that it says "living in the U.S.. Mexicans are increasingly going to other countries like Canada, Spain and the UK and it would be interesting how the total of remittances sent home has gone down globally or just from the U.S.

To return to politics: Mexicans are going to other countries because of the economic turndown and political and legal pressures being put on them in the U.S. which makes it harder for them to live there so they are choosing other countries.

 

We've been down this road before, and I guess if CarlB did a little research here and elswhere he would have learned how the one day immigrant labor strike brought the agriculture business to its knees, with 1.5 billion dollars lost at the Port of Los Angeles alone. He might have also learned that Mexican workers shove about 9 billion dollars a year into the Social Security System that they will never claim when they stop working. I would suggest reading some of these sites as well.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/pending/mexican.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/taxes.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/petition.asp

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/guadalu4.htm

http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/08/aging-us-will-m.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/immigration/233418-tax-returns-rise-immigrants-u-s.html

Without Mexican labor in the US you're going to be eating melanine laced foods from China at a much higher cost than you pay at your local Wal-Mart, Publix or Food Emporium. You'll also have no sheetrock or plaster walls in your house, if your house gets built at all. I needn't remind you of former President Fox's comment on Mexican loborers un the US>

 

Legally that "baby" can't file to bring in its parents, or adjust the status of its parents until it is an adult!! A baby born in the US is a US Citizen, but it's parents won't benefit from that fact until the baby grows up!

You've got lots of facts wrong and your post is bigoted and unbalanced.

 

I didn't want to start a flame war with this guy, but now seeing that you had more guts than me, I'll pile on. You left out ignorant.

 

Immigration legal or illegal is a complex subject. The only Americans I've ever met who actually understand US immigration law with any depth at all are either US immigration agents, immigrants or Americans who've gone through the arduous process of filing to adjust the status of an immigrant.

There is a huge amount of misinformation out there. And the subject of illegal immigration gets used for political purposes all the time. And when it gets used for a political agenda an already complex issue becomes distorted.

The "facts" are very complex and each case is different.

The reality is that the US has always been a destination for immigrants! The early Americans committed genocide and killed off the natives. The vast majority of Americans are of immigrant blood themselves. Do we all know for a fact that our ancestors who emigrated to the US were in fact legal immigrants? We do not! At different times in the history of the US there have been stricter or looser immigration laws.

Your own ancestors could have been illegal. And your family could have buried that secret. The first thing any illegal immigrant will do is lie about their immigration status.

Some of my ancestors came on the Mayflower. They were certainly illegal in the eyes of England! When my Irish ancestors came were they legal? Anyone who would have known this is long dead.

The US has had a strong economy for many years (past tense) and it has exported its TV shows and movies all over the world. People in every corner of the earth can see how great the US is through the media, but when those people fall for the idea of moving to the US they are faced with being illegal. That doesn't seem fair to me. Dangle a carrot and then take it away.

In Mexico there are numerous mafias that smuggle immigrants from all over the world into the US. These mafias make literally millions of dollars doing this. Illegal immigration is here to stay, here until the US faces that fact that it literally promotes itself as the best place on the planet to live! You can't show off like that and not attract a bunch of illegal immigrants!

Anti-immigrant sentiment is normal, it ebbs and flows throughout US history. But it's also wrong.