Mexicans Send Money to Struggling Family Members in the U.S.

Yes, you read that right. According to The New York Times, Mexicans are now sending money north, WAY north. Millions of Mexicans largely depend on remittances sent from family members who have migrated to the United States (in 2003 it was about about 18% of the population who were DIRECTLY affected). In 2008, remittances to Mexico were $25 billion. But as the the economy in the United States has taken a turn for the worst, remittances to Mexico have greatly slowed down and Mexican families are actually sending money to family members in the U.S.

The New York Times article, which describes some personal stories through speaking with family members in the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas (two of the three poorest states in the country) said :

Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.

Online Sources: The New York Times, Pew Hispanic Center, Migration News, Changing Structure of Mexico by Laura Randall

Image: The New York Times