> Yes, in former California Governor Pete Wilson's immortal words,
> "They just keep coming." Over the last decade, the U.S. State Department
> estimates that the number of Americans living in Mexico has soared from
> 200,000 to 1 million (or one-quarter of all U.S. expatriates).
> Remittances from the United States to Mexico have risen dramatically
> from $9 billion to $14.5 billion in just two years. Though initially
> interpreted as representing a huge spike in illegal workers (who send
> parts of their salaries across the border to family), it turns out to be
> mainly money sent by Americans to themselves in order to finance Mexican
> homes and retirements.
Wow! I hadn' thought about this remittance source! Of course, it makes
sense.
Illegal workers + gringos + drug dealers + coyotes = $20 billion USD in
remittances.
I just wonder how much is brought in by each group.
> The extraordinary rise in U.S. Sunbelt property values gives
> gringos immense economic leverage. Shrewd baby-boomers are not simply
> feathering nests for eventual retirement, but also increasingly
> speculating in Mexican resort property, sending up property values to
> the detriment of locals whose children are consequently driven into
> slums or forced to emigrate north, only increasing the "invasion"
> charges. As in Galway, Corsica, or, for that matter, Montana, the global
> second-home boom is making life in beautiful, natural settings
> unaffordable for their traditional residents.
On the other hand, this sounds like bs. I doubt very much that low
income Mexicans compete for the same type of land than middle and upper
class Americans.
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