Immigration Laws: July, 2004 - Number #02

Mexico: Migration, Remittances

About 10 percent of the 115 million persons born in Mexico have migrated to the US, and Mexicans continue to settle in the US at the rate of about 500,000 a year. Mexicans are coming from most areas of Mexico, and spreading throughout the US, making them visible from the fields of California to construction jobs in North Carolina and in service jobs from Las Vegas to New York.

There are two new groups of Mexican migrants. About 10 percent of Mexico's 105 million residents are at least partially "indigenous," meaning that they are mostly descended from the pre-Spanish inhabitants of Mexico and often speak languages such as Mixtec or Zapotec rather than Spanish. Most live in the poorer southern states of Mexico such as Oaxaca, and more began to migrate to the US in the past decade, often using the most risky and dangerous routes. At the other end of the skills spectrum, it is estimated that 17 percent of Mexicans with at least a high-school diploma are employed in the US.

Mexico and the US agreed on a social security agreement in June 2004 under which an estimated 41,000 legal Mexican workers could transfer social security benefits they earned in the US to Mexico, and 7,500 Americans could transfer social security benefits they earned in Mexico to the US beginning in 2005. The Bush administration said that the legal guest workers as proposed in January 2004 could also participate in exchange of social security credits.

Mexico apprehended and returned 138,800 migrants at its southern border in 2003, including 68,700 Guatemalans, 45,400 Hondurans, and 23,400 Salvadorans.

Remittances. Mexico's Central Bank reported that remittances were $13.8 billion in 2003, and are running ahead of last year's pace in 2004. There were 41.3 million remittance transactions, but only about a million were handled by the four biggest banks, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Harris Bank, in part because the banks are not significantly cheaper than Western Union and other money transmitters that do not require as much identification.

The average charge to send $400 in 2003 was 4.4 percent, down from 6.3 percent in 2001. Western Union charges $14.99 per money transfer up to $300, bank-to-bank transfers from Wells Fargo's Intercuenta Express cost $10, and U.S. Bank charges $8 to $10 to load money onto its Secured Money Transfer Card, which is accessed via ATMs.

Elections. In 1996, Mexico granted citizens abroad the right to cast absentee ballots. There are about 10 million Mexican-born US residents, but the Mexican government has not yet developed an absentee-ballot system for them to vote. Mexican officials say that developing an absentee voting system is complex, while Mexicans in the US say that the major political parties in Mexico want to ensure that votes from the US do not hurt them in national elections scheduled for 2006.

At least 800,000 of the 2.1 million persons born in Zacatecas live in the United States, a Mexican state that sets aside two seats for ‚migr‚s in the 30-seat state legislature and elected the first female governor of a state, Amalia Garc_a of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD. Remittances to Zacatecas were $480 million in 2003, and Andres Bermudez, the "Tomato King" from Winters, California, was elected mayor of Jerez. He was also elected in 2001 but disqualified for not meeting residency requirements, which have since changed. Another migrant running for office in Zacatecas pledged to monitor the remittances donated and matched for infrastructure improvements, alleging that many projects are rife with waste and delays.

In July 2004 elections, President Vicente Fox's National Action Party failed to win the governorships of the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango and Zacatecas, reflecting voter disenchantment with PAN's failure to deliver on campaign promises of sweeping reforms and a better economy. Fox remains popular, but some of this advisors have quit, blaming his wife's activities- she was widely believed to be campaigning to run for president in 2006 until she announced after the state elections she would not be a presidential candidate.

The National Mexico Rural Household Survey, conducted in January-February 2003, collected information from Mexicans living in communities with fewer than 2,500 residents, including their migration history since 1980. In 2002, nearly 17 percent of villagers registered as residents were in the United States.

Economy. Mexico exports $165 billion a year in goods, and 90 percent go to the US- Mexico provides 11 percent of US imports. Still, China surpassed Mexico to become the second largest exporter to the US in 2003, after Canada, and China attracted far more foreign investment, $54 billion, compared to $11 billion in Mexico.

The 1.3 million National Education Workers Union is one of the largest and most powerful unions in Mexico. During the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the union guaranteed the ruling party votes in exchange for a controlling interest in the education system. In exchange, ex-teachers can "sell" their positions to newcomers, often for the first year's salary; most teachers earn about $7,200 for 200 days of work a year.

Mexico has four big supermarket chains-- Wal-Mart (Cifra), Comercial Mexicana, Soriana and Gigante. The three Mexican chains won permission in July 2004 to form a cooperative purchasing company to lower their cost of supplies and to remain competitive with Wal-Mart.

Fast-growing Mexican cities lack water. Lake Chapala, which supplies water to Guadalajara, shrank to historically low levels in 2003, prompting water rationing and accelerating plans to build new dams and reservoirs. A sixth of Mexicans do not have running water in their homes, and many municipal water systems lose water to leaky pipes.

"Guatemala, Mexico sign agreement on repatriations," El Universal, June 27, 2004. Bacon, David. 2004. The Children of NAFTA. Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border. University of California Press.