Mexican Migrants Sent Record $36B In Remittances In 2019

Instability in Mexico and Latin America drove a wave of migrant workers to send a record amount of remittances to their home countries in 2019. Mexico’s Central Bank reported that Mexican migrants working overseas sent home a record-high $36 billion in remittances in 2019, a 7 percent increase from 2018.

According to a study from the Inter-American Dialogue, between 2016 and 2017, remittances to Mexico increased by 12 percent, a sharp rise from previous years.

States with the largest population of Mexican-born immigrants rank highest in remittance transfers. The states with the highest transfers include California ($8.84 billion), Texas ($4.3 billion), Illinois ($1.4 billion), New York ($1.8 billion), Florida ($1.15 billion), and Georgia ($1.0 billion). California accounted for nearly 29 percent of the total remittances to Mexico from 2014 to 2017. During this same time period, the percentage of the Mexican-born population in the U.S. dropped slightly by 1.3 percent while remittances spiked to nearly 8 percent.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Mexico transitioned from a closed economy to a market-oriented economy. Mexico further accelerated its market-based economy by entering into the NAFTA agreement in 1994 and exports became a major source of revenue. Still, Mexico is highly dependent on the United States for exports and remittances. Remittances replaced oil exports as Mexico’s largest source of foreign exchange, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

Deep Dive: Just What Are These ‘Illegal’ Orders Dems Want the Military to Disobey? Here They Are, And They’re Anything but Illegal

Bondi targets James Comey, Letitia James in legal battle: ‘hold…accountable for unlawful conduct’

DOJ renews fight for Epstein and Maxwell grand jury records

WNBA Star Admits That Elite 8th Graders Could ‘Probably’ Beat WNBA Players

DOJ files motion to unseal Epstein docs in latest step toward release

Mamdani appoints top DSA leaders among more than 400 others to transition committees

‘Trump will probably come after me again’: Comey reacts to criminal case dismissal

Australian Senate Suspended After Right-Wing Leader Wears Burka in Protest

America’s smallest cattle herd in 70 years means rebuilding will take years and beef prices could stay high

‘Chanting Bring in Trump’: After Wildly Violent Chicago Weekend, Trump Says He’s Being Begged to Save the Blue City

Justice Thomas rebukes SCOTUS for denying widow’s case, says it lets government dodge blame

Couric and Psaki condemn pressroom political diversity: Liberal Media Scream

Royal Navy catches two Russian spy ships in English Channel

Bodycam images show Luigi Mangione’s McDonald’s arrest as defense challenges evidence collection

Senate Democrat Facing Court-Martial Over Video Encouraging Military Personnel to Defy Trump

From foreign tourism, Mexico receives about $25 billion while only $22.4 billion in annual petroleum exports.

Mexico’s poverty rate remains high despite its openness to the international economic system. The poverty rate stands at 41.9 percent as of 2018 according to the International Monetary Fund. People working in the subsistence farming or informal sector of the economy are among Mexico’s poorest citizens and are especially reliant on remittances from the U.S. to pay for basic essential needs.

Remittance flows could remain high with Mexico’s economy projected to remain sluggish. The International Monetary Fund predicts meager economic growth for Mexico at 1 percent in 2020. Mexico’s 2019 third-quarter growth remained stagnant as well.

The rise in remittances from the United States to Mexico is happening alongside an overall downside trajectory in immigration from Mexican migrants to the U.S.

Across the wider Latin America region, remittances grew by 4.7 percent in 2019, according to a study published by Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue.