Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives

Many Mexican immigrants come to the United States in search for better paying jobs in order to support family members back home. Unfortunately, with the current state of our economy, the opposite is happening. Family members in Mexico are found wiring pesos back the “land of opportunity.” Mexico doesn’t have enough strength as an economy to support half of the country let alone kin abroad. Economists predict 735,000 jobs will be lost this year and a potential decline of 7.5 percent as a whole. An estimated 1.8 million families receive economic support from abroad making this resource Mexico’s top source of foreign currency. For these families the support makes up roughly 19 percent of their total income. Both countries are filled with families struggling to support each other, but the only reason families residing in Mexico can survive is inexpensive living.

by Paul Yuccas