Deportations Could Cause Economic Chaos in Mexico Mark Karlin - BuzzFlash
go to original August 26, 2016

Remittances to Mexico total an estimated $25 billion and play a key role in the survival of the poor, who comprise more than 45 percent of the population. (Luis Sinco/The Los Angeles Times)

An August 24 New York Time article reports on how important remittances (money sent home by workers living in other countries) are to the economic stability of nations with high poverty rates:

The millions of migrant workers who drill for oil, deliver pizza or take care of older adults far from home sent nearly $582 billion back to their countries in 2015, according to the World Bank....

....remittances have become crucial to relieving some of the world’s poorest people from hunger and want, just as they have become a major revenue source for a number of fragile nations.

A separate World Bank study found that remittances were the main reason poverty had declined so sharply there in recent years. Not only do families of migrant workers benefit, the study found; so does everybody else, when the families spend that money locally.

A 2015 Reuters article stated that the Mexican government disclosed:

Two million more Mexicans fell into poverty between 2012 and 2014, government data showed on Thursday, highlighting the challenges President Enrique Pena Nieto faces in meeting pledges to lift millions out of need.

The poverty rate increased by 0.7 percentage point to 46.2 percent last year from 45.5 percent in 2012, equivalent to 55.3 million people in the nation of nearly 120 million, said government social development agency Coneval.

As a result, additional revenue - such as remittances - that are sent to Mexico are even more vital for many people's survival. The Mexican economy currently resembles an oligarchy, and dramatic political change in the direction of economic justice does not appear to be on the horizon in the near future. This is due to a variety of factors, including the US's efforts to ensure that Mexico does not engage in real economic reform, which would distract it from becoming a full-fledged member of the neoliberal global economy.

Read the rest at Truthout

Related: Mexico Said to Consider Tax Cut for Private Equity Investors (Bloomberg)

Related: Mexico Malaise Threatens to Tarnish Pena Nieto’s Ratings Legacy (Bloomberg)

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