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.
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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.
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Mass protests and civil unrest across Central and Latin America were a primary factor in the rise of remittances. Although there are many diverse motivations for the movements that spread across Latin America, there are some similarities shared. People in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Colombia rose up in protest against political corruption and ineptitude, and the respective governments’ overall lack of responsiveness in dealing with social services.
According to global trends, remittance flows were down slightly in the fourth quarter of 2019 and was 6.8 percent. The global average for remittance transfers has remained below 8 percent since 2014, according to the World Bank.
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