Author: a.salgado

https://www.worldatlas.com/r/w960-q80/upload/eb/df/13/untitled-2-009.jpeg– Photo of the Poorest regions in Mexico from WorldAtlas.com.

Immigration to Mexico has spiked, with remote workers from the United States choosing to move there. U.S remote workers want to pursue a higher quality of life at a cheaper cost by getting paid with U.S dollars and paying for their expenses in Mexico with pesos. This is a contrast to Mexican people who come to the United States under any means necessary in order to escape poverty and pursue a better life in the United States, where in most cases they still live in poverty.

On average, rent in Mexico is between $451 USD and $772 USD (depending on the location) for a one bedroom home. The cost of living in Mexico which includes utilities, Wi-Fi, transportation and groceries is approximately $520 a month. Salary.com reports that the average base salary of remote workers in the United States is $33,213 USD a year. Although $33,213 USD doesn’t seem like a lot, it can go a long way in Mexico.

“I had to come to the United States in order to find a job that pays well. We were really poor, jobs in Mexico only pay a few dollars a day.” said David Degante, a 36 year old man who immigrated to the U.S from Puebla, Mexico when he was 15 years old. David Degante has older siblings who migrated to New York before him for the same reason, “My older brother was the first to leave, then my older sister and shortly after, another one of my older sisters went and they all sent money to my parents to support the family.” said David. 

Puebla’s percentage of population living in poverty is 58.9%. WorldAtlas reports that as of 2018, 42.9% of Mexico’s population live in poverty and Mexico’s 3 poorest states are Chiapas (76.4%), Guerrero (66.5%) and Oaxaca (66.4%).

Salvador (Doesn’t want to disclose last name) age 47, moved to the United States at 13 years old. “All my siblings were already here and I wasn’t in school anymore so I came here to work.” said Salvador. Salvador said he came to the United States with a friend and stayed with his sister who was already living in New York.

When asked if they planned on returning to Mexico, David and Salvador both said that they hoped to return one day. 

David said that he built a multi-family house to rent out and live in but that he can’t survive off the income he makes from being a landlord so he’s saving money in order to go back one day. David has a wife and a daughter in his home town in Mexico that are waiting for his return.

Salvador said that he’s inheriting his parents house and has been making renovations so that he can retire and move there one day. Salvador’s parents live in Mexico, but his wife and kids live in New York with him. “Life in the states isn’t life, once you get here all you do is work” said Salvador who hopes to move back to Mexico when his kids become self-sufficient. 

The poorest regions in Mexico are located in the southern parts of Mexico and recently, the Mexican government has proposed a tourist train project that will connect to 5 southeastern states. President Andres Manuel hopes that this project will close inequality gaps and push forward economic development in poorer regions.  When asked how he felt about this development, David said “I think that tourism is good because people spend money.”

David and Salvador both acknowledge that poorer regions in Mexico would benefit from tourism. But when asked how he felt about remote workers from the U.S moving to Mexico, Salvador said that he is worried that it would make the cost of living go up and the only people who would be able to afford it would be Americans. David and Salvador still have a lot of family in Mexico and worry that remote workers from the U.S could move to regions that are close to their hometowns, which would affect their loved ones. 

David Degante is currently still undocumented, and has 2 jobs so that he can support himself while he lives here and support his family in Mexico. Salvador managed to become a resident in 2016 after living in New York for almost 30 years, and works in a factory. Salvador and David have provided more financial security for their families by moving to the U.S, but they still struggle to support themselves and the ones they love, but had to leave behind. U.S remote workers moving to Mexico in order to live more comfortable lives rubs salt into the wounds of many Mexicans, who had to leave their homes to help support their families. Many undocumented Mexicans go decades without seeing their families in Mexico because of how difficult and dangerous it is to make it back to the U.S.

I recently saw a piece on Reuters called “Boon or threat? Mexico City wrestles with the influx of remote U.S. workers” which talked about how remote workers from the U.S ( Digital nomads) migrating to Mexico affected Mexico city residents. I want to write about how this affects Mexican immigrants here in New York. There were About 156,000 Mexicans living in NYC in 2019 according to the NYC mayor’s office of immigrant affairs. As of 2020, Mexico had a population of 128,932,753. There are a lot of Mexican immigrants in the tri-state area, and in NYC Sunset Park has a large Mexican community. In Sunset there is also the Mixteca organization which aims to help Mexican immigrants and other Latin American immigrants. The most common jobs for Mexican women are housekeeping and for Mexican men construction. Mexican people migrate to the U.S due to poverty in Mexico and the promise of more opportunities to make money in the U.S, this started in the 1940s when the U.s and Mexico created a labor program that encouraged Mexicans to migrate to the U.S as contract workers. This is why I want to focus my story on working-class Mexican immigrants in NYC and the effects that remote workers from the U.S moving to Mexico would have on them.

Over the weekend I read a New York Times article titled” Over Caves and Over Budget, Mexico’s Train Project Barrels Towards Disaster” by Maria Abi-Habib. This article is about the Maya train, a train project in Mexico that was pitched by President Andres Manuel Lopez as a way to “reinvigorate” Mexico’s poorest regions. Reading about Mexico’s President investing money to help out poor regions in the country was something that I was happy to see but as I read more I saw that government officials and project contractors were worried about the future of this project because it was being rushed and poorly planned, which could lead to the railway collapsing. The project was also “wildly out of budget” and not being able to boost the economy in poorer regions. Poverty in Mexico is something that I’m familiar with, I grew up hearing about it when my parents and other family members would tell me about why they crossed the border. They couldn’t afford to live in the country they grew up in and the Mexican government didn’t help them. Their situation wasn’t much better in the U.S, they faced discrimination and still lived in proverty but atleast they were able to afford food, shelter and were able to send money back to those they left behind. I want to report on Mexico because of the people who migrate here because their home country failed them yet they still miss it. Mexican undocumented immigrants are often seen as “illegal” and trespassers when they’re more like refugees.