Mexicans Are Now Sending Pesos North

As our country slogs its way out of the recession people have had to make a whole lot of changes in the way they’ve been running their lives. It seems as if no sector of the economy or segment of the population has been immune. In one startling sign of how the recession has affected people around this country; the cash flow between relatives in the U.S. and Mexico has reversed itself.

It used to be standard practice that people left Mexico to come to the United States in hopes of living out their dreams. Here in the land of opportunity they found jobs where they would make money that they could only dream of back home in Mexico. These ambitious Mexicans would then take some of this excess money and send it back to relatives struggling to get by back home in Mexico. Here they had nicer things than they ever imagined and still were able to send back that money and be praised by their families. It was really a win-win situation for everyone involved. Times were good for folks on both sides in this come to America to work program.

This of course all changed when our economy went in the tank. The jobs that had been there for these migrant workers started drying up. Now the people that had been over here working and helping support their families back home in Mexico, found themselves unemployed.

The New York Times had a great article yesterday that described this economic change entitled “Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives”. The article talks about the interesting development of families in Mexico now being forced to help out their formerly better off relatives over here in the United States.

Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.

“We send something whenever we have a little extra, at least enough so he can eat,” said Mr. Salcedo, who is from a small village here in the rural state of Oaxaca and works odd jobs to support his wife, his two younger sons and, now, his jobless eldest boy in California.

This just shows how bad off the economic situation has gotten here in the United States. Who would have ever thought that people in Mexico would find themselves in a better situation than over here in the so called Land of Opportunity. This is not an isolated event either, it seems to be happening more and more often.

Not only are there not as many jobs out there period for these migrant workers to get their hands on, but the losses of jobs that might be deemed above these jobs has affected them as well. With so many people out of work these days people are not forced to hire these immigrants for these low paying and hard working jobs. People that before might have scoffed at the idea of working outdoors for this wage, now are simply happy to have a job. So the applicant pool that these jobs are looking at has increased a whole lot.

Not to say the situation in Mexico is all that good either. Their economy depends on our economy a whole lot. Our recession has sent them into a bit of a recession as well. Mexico is looking at a loss of about 735,000 jobs this year with their economy declining about 7.5%. However, its a whole lot easier to get by in Mexico on next to nothing than it is here in the United States.

In Miahuatlán, Sirenia Avendano and her husband may be more down and out than their two sons, both in their 20s, who wait tables at a Mexican restaurant in central Florida and have seen their hours reduced and their tips drop precipitously. But they live in their own home, on land they use to grow corn and other crops.

“We’re poor, but nobody can throw us out of this house,” Ms. Avendano said, wiping away tears at her kitchen table as she spoke of her sons’ economic travails. “They worry about that. What happens if they can’t pay the rent?” To help make ends meet, she sells chiles rellenos, a popular delicacy, around the neighborhood.

There’s also a sense of loyalty and commitment that comes into play. How can you possibly not try and help out someone who has been helping you out for a long time?

While the flow of people coming north from Mexico has certainly slowed a bit as opportunities have dried up, there hasn’t been a mass exodus of people who are already over here heading back to Mexico. One reason for this is the high price of crossing over into this country illegally. A lot of these families saved up for quite awhile to get their sons over the border so their not going to want to have to go through that again. Right now their basically forced into remaining optimistic. Hopefully they can just ride this recession out long enough for the jobs to return.