“I wish we had more self-esteem, valued Mexico’s opportunities more, and dispelled the myth of the American dream.”
According to the criteria of
The Mexicans Vicente Cruz, Damián Palacios and Francisco Máximo repeat this wish when they tell their stories to BBC Mundo.
Cruz is a dynamic young man from Mexico City who has accumulated several successful ventures.
palaces, a returned migrant from the United States who upon returning founded a tortilla franchise with enough earnings to help with his children’s scholarship in Texas.
And Máximo, a humble but self-sacrificing worker from Veracruz who slowly made his way and is close to buying an apartment in the Mexican capital.
Their biographies are different, but they have a common link: They had the opportunity to migrate or stay in the United States, but they rejected the idea. They see less and less sense in it.
“We have a strong weight, many opportunities to grow and ‘the special affection of the land,'” says Palacios from Sierra Gorda, a biosphere reserve area in the states of Querétaro and San Luis in Mexico.
Cruz, Palacios and Máximo They are part of a growing group of Mexicans who think less and less about migrating.
It is a striking trend in a country whose citizens have sought opportunities for decades in the powerful neighbor to the north, where it is estimated that 40 million of a total of 300 million inhabitants are of Mexican originaccording to 2018 data from the Current Population Survey of the United States, reflected on the Mexican government page.
However, in 2023, the Latin American Public Opinion Project Laboratory (Lapop) reports that Mexicans are the nationality with the lowest migratory intention in the entire region. A figure that has also been declining in the last five years.
From 19% of respondents who intended to migrate between 2018 and 2019, only 14% intended to do so in 2023.
It is a trend that goes against the grain of most countries in the region, where the intention to migrate has increased in this period, especially in Nicaragua (from 30% to 50%), Peru (from 33% to 40%). and Ecuador (from 30% to 39%).
The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that Mexican migration decreased by 10% between 2010 and 2020. From 12,415,000 emigrants who registered in 2010, the number fell to 11,186,000 in 2020.
“There is still a significant number of Mexicans who continue to migrate, especially to the United States, but It is notable that migration is changing and that the stability of the economy and the strengthening of the peso may be factors (in this trend)”, Ariel Ruiz Soto, from the Migration Policy Institute of the United States, tells BBC Mundo.
The “superweight” and the international “boom”
Mexico is experiencing a stable and powerful economic moment.
Right now it is a magnet that attracts digital nomads, dozens of multinationals, foreign entrepreneurs and Mexicans back after spending time abroad.
“The mentality changed a lot. There is an amazing entrepreneurial scenewith many young people opening businesses and foreigners, many Americans, interested in residing, working and investing in Mexico,” says Cruz, from Papel Maché, a digital marketing agency.
Because of his work, Cruz considers that he has “a good thermometer” of how the Mexican prosperity manifests itself on the street: a price of 18 pesos per dollar (two years ago it was 20), a growth of more than 3% of GDP in 2023 (among the top four in the region), a consolidated position as the second economy in Latin America behind Brazil and an unemployment rate of 2.8%.
The World Bank, however, warns that “during the last three decades, Mexico has performed below expectations in terms of growth, inclusion and poverty reduction compared to similar countries,” despite the improvements achieved. in the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president.
“But in large urban areas: CDMX, Monterrey or Puebla, for example, it is very appreciated how growth is helping local families,” says Ruiz Soto.
A reality that, the expert insists, seems to be transforming the migration and mentality of Mexicans.
“The idealization” of the United States
Cruz shows me his workplace. It is an amazing house from the beginning of the 20th century transformed into a business space in the Juárez neighborhood of Mexico City.
“Every week new clients come, Mexicans and foreigners, with project ideas,” he says as we tour the mansion.
At 38 years old, Cruz has an extensive resume.
Before establishing your marketing agency, He was in charge of a home delivery hamburger restaurant called IT Burgers.
Previously he worked with Eugenio Derbez, a famous Mexican actor and comedian. He then frequently went to Los Angeles, at least once a month.
He closely weighed the pros and cons of living and working on either side of the border.
“I was always clear that in Mexico I would have a better future,” he says.
“There is an idealization of the Mexican that in the US there are all the opportunities, but in countries like Mexico sometimes there are more things to do. “With good and well-structured ideas, the probability of raising capital is much higher than people believe.”
He thinks that many Mexicans realized “the uncertain narrative of the American dream” and are now returning from the United States, with dollars and a “know how interesting American (experience) that helps Mexico flourish.
Although Cruz does not idealize either: “neither an American nor a Mexican dream. It is a story that only with sacrifice can everything be achieved and Mexico has other problems, such as the gentrification that its popularity generates.”
Under condition of anonymity, Mexican entrepreneurs and workers also told BBC Mundo about how “floor rights” stifle many ventures once their success becomes known.
The so-called floor rights occur when criminals or criminal groups appear in businesses and demand that the owners pay money in exchange for personal and material protection.
“I came back to help my people”
Damián Palacios is one of those Mexicans who returned after decades in the United States.
He lived in San Antonio, Texas, where he considers his second home.
He left in the late 80s and returned in the early 2000s. with fresh ideas, desire, resources and maximum respect for taking care of the client and the worker.
“I founded a chain of tortilla shops where we currently employ 45 people.. “I wanted to come back and help, contribute to the economy of smaller towns where we are not aware of the opportunities that exist.”
The trend of Mexicans returning from the United States is another striking phenomenon.
With ups and downs, experts have been studying an increase in the return of Mexican migrants since the economic crisis that shook the world in 2008.
In 2010 there was a historic boom of 832,790 returnees. In 2020the census recorded 294,203 returnedbut this value was still above the figures reported in 2000, according to a study by the Autonomous University of Mexico.
The IOM speaks of “high levels” of returns, which drive the general decrease in Mexican migrants in the US.
“In my case I came back because I opened my eyes and believed in myself. The US was a school, but I noticed apathy. In Mexico there is opportunity and human warmth. We should have more self-esteem,” says Palacios.
His case also illustrates the contradictions that can occur between borders.
From Mexico, a country with fewer resources, he helped maintain his children’s scholarships at prestigious universities in Texas, “where there is more money but life is also more expensive.”
“It has been a huge struggle to have supported them with money,” Palacios acknowledges, proudly showing me the photos of his graduated children.
A change of trend
Francisco Máximo’s gaze shines when he looks back and visualizes the path he has taken.
He arrived in CDMX when he was just 14 years old in the early 90s and since then he has worked in construction, hospitality, as handyman…He is seasoned in his trades.
Two of his brothers reside in the United States. One as temporary and the other as permanent after first arriving illegally. For a time they insisted on taking the step.
“I thought about it a lot, but I preferred to stay close to my family, watching my children grow up and taking advantage of the fact that Mexico has changed a lot, especially in work options. You just have to find it and put in the effort,” she reflects.
When he analyzes the difference with his brothers, he says that “they have achieved more in terms of property: the car, the house.”
But even this is about to change. Based on effort, savings and a supportive boss who “considers him part of the family”, Máximo is close to buying his first apartment.
End the conversation with a wish: “I wish my brothers would become aware and come back. I hope to have the whole family together again.”
Ariel Ruiz Soto, the migration expert, clarifies that the fact that more Mexicans find reasons to stay or return goes hand in hand with the fact that the number of Mexican migrants who travel irregularly to the United States remains relatively constant and those who migrate using regular mechanisms, such as temporary visas, is increasing.
But he sees a change in trend.
“It may be that those irregular migrants migrate more due to violence, crime or discrimination, usually outside urban areas, than for economic reasons as before,” analyzes Ruiz Soto.
It is the other side of the country’s economic bonanza, which records chilling data such as 30,523 homicide victims in 2023, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
It is an evil that, along with others such as the power of the drug cartels, reports of state weakness, the lack of more access to education and health, and high levels of gender violence, keep high sectors of the population in panic and hardship.
“Mexico’s economy, crime and violence will dictate what will happen with migration in the coming years,” concludes Ruiz Soto.
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