August 9, 2007 (LPAC)--Mexican immigrants in the U.S., especially those living in states considered to be "new" destination sites, are sending less money to families back home, according to a just-released study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). The decline is attributed to an increase in anti-immigrant legislation in several states, but especially in those where immigration is not an established trend, such as Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina or Pennsylvania. The hostile environment resulting from such action makes it more difficult for Mexican workers to find jobs, rent homes or obtain services.
According to the IADB study, due to their increasingly uncertain circumstances, Mexican workers living in these and other southern states are more likely to save money rather than send it to family members back in Mexico. While 71% of Mexican workers in the U.S. regularly sent remittances home during the first half of 2006, that percentage dropped to 64% for the first half of 2007. And in 40 states where Mexican immigration is a newer phenomenon, the decline was even sharper, dropping to 56% this year from an average of 80% in 2006. In 2006, Mexico received $23.1 billion in remittances; but in the first half of 2007, remittances have increased only by 0.6%, compared to a 23% increase for the same period in 2006.
Today, Mexico and other Ibero-American nations depend on the remittances sent by their citizens in the U.S. Over recent decades, International Monetary Fund policies and such travesties as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), wrecked productive activity and jobs in these nations, and forced large segments of their populations to emigrate to the U.S. in search of livlihoods. Now, under conditions of global financial breakdown, a reduction in remittances sent to Mexico could have a serious destabilizing effect. Only about half of the almost 2 million Mexicans living in the "new" U.S. migration destinations are sending back remittances, compared with four-fifths a year ago, London's Financial Times reported Aug. 9.
