How Mexican Citizens Build Better Lives Back Home with US Earnings Agence France-Presse | |
go to original April 5, 2017 |
Federico Botello, who migrated to the US with his brothers in search of work and better opportunities a few years ago, now lives in his hometown, Piedras Negras in Guanajuato state (AFP)
The Botello brothers grew up in a small stone hut in a remote Mexican village until they went to the United States. Now, by local standards, they are rich.
But they fear that US President Donald Trump will take away their future remittances - the dollars they earn as undocumented migrant construction workers and send back home.
"I would not have a house nor a pickup truck without the money that I earned there," Jose Botello, 28, told AFP, proudly showing off his comfortable home in the village of Piedras Negras in central Mexico.
After spending two years in the United States, Jose and his 24-year-old brother Federico came back in December to get married in this sunbaked hamlet of just a few unpaved roads.
Four other siblings remain in Naples, Florida, saving every penny they can with the dream of creating a better life back in Mexico.
Remittances sent from the United States are the main source of income for many families in Mexico, particularly rural people. And they are one of the main sources of revenue for the country as a whole: nearly $27 billion in 2016.
So the Mexican government is watching Trump very closely, because he has mentioned the idea of seizing such remittances or taxing them to help pay for the wall he wants to build along the border with Mexico.
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