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.

Former Trump lawyer accuses federal judge of making ‘baseless accusations of lying’ after departure

Missouri couple accused of locking teens in chicken pen, shooting them with BB guns in abuse case

House passes AI education bill for small businesses in landslide 395-14 vote

Cities Church Issues Full-Throated Response to Invasion of their Sunday Worship Service by Leftist Agitators

Illegal immigrant allegedly ran from deadly wrong-way DUI crash that killed motorcyclist, records show

DHS says ICE agents rammed by vehicles amid Minneapolis enforcement surge: ‘Aggressively assaulted’

Ilhan Omar vows ‘not to give ICE a single cent’ in heated congressional funding fight

ALERT: Dem Rep Publicly Supports Assault on Christian Worship Service by Leftist Agitators

Pennsylvania county official seeks to evict of DHS and ICE over three years of unpaid rent

One Incredibly Simple Map Explains Why Greenland Is 100 Percent Vital to US Security

The Harris Campaign Probed Whether Tim Walz Was a Chinese Agent During VP Selection Process: Report

ICE: Minnesota won’t let us arrest 1,360 criminal illegal immigrants in state jails

Tariffs, Greenland, and a ‘nasty’ binder clip: Five takeaways from Trump’s marathon first-anniversary press briefing

California GOP asks Supreme Court to block House map ahead of midterm elections

Gavin Newsom Freaks Out After Arriving at Davos and Hearing What World Leaders Are Saying About 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.