Posted on 01/25/2025 4:33:42 AM PST by TigerClaws
Beyond providing supplemental income for Mexican households, remittances—funds sent by migrants to friends and families in their home country—provide a stable flow of developmental finance to the poorest subregions of the country, which have not historically benefited from international capital flows, such as development aid or foreign direct investment. Mexico, the world’s second-largest recipient of remittances, has seen a steady increase in the total volume of remittances received, primarily due to the strength of the U.S. labor market and concurrent wage growth among Mexican workers in the United States. Mechanisms to keep remittances secure are not impermeable to criminal organizations, which have been known to use small-increment deposits to launder gains from illicit economic activity, including drug trafficking. However, through increased U.S.-Mexico cooperation, both countries can strike the delicate balance between facilitating flows of remittances to promote development and financial inclusion and securing those funds from exploitation by illicit actors. Introduction and Overview
Behind India, Mexico is now the second-largest recipient of remittances in the world. In 2023, Mexico received $63.3 billion in remittances, accounting for roughly 7.5 percent of global remittance flows and establishing the country’s position as the second-largest destination for such funds worldwide. Driven by Mexico’s history of emigration and the subsequent development of a significant and increasingly wealthy diaspora in its neighbor to the north, the flow of remittances to Mexico from abroad is notable not only for its size but also for its substantial growth in recent years, despite declines in Mexican emigration. In fact, the volume of remittances received by Mexican households increased by nearly 8 percent from 2022 to 2023, despite no corresponding growth in the foreign-born Mexican population in the United States. This growth can be attributed to dynamics in the U.S. labor market and changes in the characteristics of this type of transaction.
Remittances from abroad account for roughly 4.5 percent of Mexico’s total GDP and form the largest single source of foreign income for Mexico, outstripping the income brought in by any other individual source, including foreign direct investment (FDI) from the United States, tourism, and net manufacturing exports. The total value of remittances increased by roughly 32 percent between 2019 and 2023, rising by an average of 5 percent per year. As of 2022, the average remittance transaction sent to Mexico amounted to roughly $390—considering Mexico’s average monthly salary of $6,150 Mexican pesos (or roughly $297 U.S. dollars), such transactions can contribute a sizable portion (and sometimes the entirety) of a family’s total income.
Need to tax this money as this is how the cash 'migrant' off the books pay system gets money out of our economy down south.
THIS is how we get Mexico to bend the knee. (They refused a plane repatriating their invaders yesterday.)
Getting Mexico to bend the knee is trivial.
I just found 230 million dollars—per year!
https://www.foreignassistance.gov/cd/mexico/2023/obligations/0
“THIS is how we get Mexico to bend the knee. (They refused a plane repatriating their invaders yesterday.)”
This would certainly sting. The other idea I’ve heard floated is to end the processing of visas for citizens of non-cooperating countries. A third idea would be to simply CLOSE THE BORDER, or at least drastically slow things down (”sorry, we only have staff for 2 lanes now, the rest of our agents are busy rounding up illegals in sanctuary cities).
If Mexico REALLY wants to go toe-to-toe against us, they’re welcome to try.
A simple 5% tax on that $64 billion in remittances would raise $3.2 billion every year
After 4 years, that would be $12.8 billion raised
Wall all paid for, by Mexico!
BTTT
I know of a lot of chinese that send money money every month.
The remittance trap is that a lot of that money seems to be illegal SS payments to people who are not citizens. The Ethiopians in Minnesota are masters at that kind of wealth transfer, illegaling starting all kind of government scams and sending the money back to Ethiopia.
I just returned from a vacation to Mexico. Mexico is not hurting. There is no reason to leave Mexico that I could see.
I never understood the corruption, lawlessness and the masses of poor people south of the border while north of the Rio Grande there is prosperity and law and order. (prosperity and law & order will soon return under Trump)
When I say south of the border I mean all the way to the southern tip of South America and north includes Canada.
Is it because those countries were settled mostly by the Spanish? Is it because most are Catholic? What is the common denominator?
With Mexico’s human and natural resources they should be just as well off as we are.
Tax them at 50% and see how fast they welcome our planes.
CC
A “remittance” fee or tax seems VERY reasonable.
And, truth be told some of it is our money in the first place.
CC
The Center for Strategic and International Studies' concerns are not our concerns. Nor are the concerns of Mexico.
The article is promoting "Mexico's nearshoring attractiveness" and " foreign direct investment in the south of Mexico." Also not our concerns.
CSIS is a Washington DC think tank, It leaned Harris-Walz per an article from last fall. One read: "...the world will look for early reassurances of continuity on climate commitments from a Harris presidency. Trump's hostility toward the Paris Agreement and the Inflation Reduction Act will be a source of discord with European and Asian governments but might also be welcomed by the private sector in those countries for removing the subsidies favoring U.S. companies."
President Trump -- not a Harris-Walz administration -- has acted against the CSIS leanings. Color me amused. Poor CSIS. Poor Paris Climate Agreement. Poor WHO. So many unhappy one-time Harris supporters....
We might as well annex Mexico.
There is effectively no way to stop the flow. There are simply too many ways to easily transfer money to stop the flow
The best way is to find and deport those illegals transmitting the money. The illegals are paid for work. Make penalties on payments to illegal so harsh and expensive that most cease paying them. Five years in jail and a $10,000 fine would go a long way to ending the practice.
This crap has got to stop.
Mexicans claim they have to sneak into America because the Mexican government is trying to kill them. They need “asylum”. The Gringos are idiots and buy that baloney street taco.
Yes, but it’s the INFORMATION within the article that is useful to our ‘media’ - bloggers, Gateway Pundit, etc.
This is how “Mexico will pay for the wall.”
Remittances.
It’s also a massive scam as illegals ship their cash out of the country while using our schools, roads, food stamp, etc. programs.
For Western Union Mexico no longer counts as a “foreign country” when sending money. Seriously.
Meanwhile, I have to produce a bank account number and ID to break a $100 at a bank to prevent “money laundering”....
Illegals also get bank accounts without need of a SSN.
Illegals get free hospital care while citizens are sent massive bills.
“...to friends and families in their home country...”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. /s
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