Living heroes now don't just want to 'send' remittances

As one of the main sources of dollar income to the country, protectors of the exchange rate and in volume, the largest social welfare plan ever implemented by any government, migrants now 'come down' to seek to equate their monetary weight with political weight.

By Barbara Anderson

Every hour, migrants send $6.5 million to our country.

The figures for the first half of this year, which totaled 27,565.08 billion dollars (mdd), an increase of 16.6% compared to the first half of 2021, suffice to calculate this.

If the growth rate of migrant remittances continues as it has been, we would close 2022 with a total of $56 billion dollars. Remittances have already become the second largest source of income for the country, surpassing foreign direct investment and tourism income.

"Living heroes" for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, an enormous source of greenbacks and protectors of the exchange rate, migrants no longer want to maintain that pseudo-mythological status that sneaks into every templete.

"We don't want to be seen only as those who send remittances," is the voice that has united for the first time in history 150 migrant organizations that want their 'pesos' to have 'weight' in national decisions.

In the midst of the heat of the discussion on the Electoral Reform, migrants are demanding that they be given greater political participation and representation in the country they hold at arm's length.

Today they will present a manifesto in the Congress of the Union to formalize the migrant vote in all electoral instances and also the nomination of migrant candidates in both federal and state congresses, as well as to influence decisions at the municipal or mayoral level.

These hundreds of organizations and groups of paisanos (Colectivo de Federaciones y Organizaciones Mexicanas Migrantes en Estados Unidos) based in the large Mexican community centers such as the states of California, Chicago, New York and Texas, want fewer flowers in their speeches because their financial footprint already gives them a superior status.

If they are a growing source of fresh income to the country, the demand for a concrete participation in state decisions is something that has not been taken seriously enough to date. There is a pro-migrant affirmative action by the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary of the Federation, which declared in 2021 that political-electoral rights, such as voting and being voted for, should be respected for all Mexicans. But this action has not been fulfilled at the legislative level yet. It should not be forgotten that political rights are human rights and should be exercised fully and equally.

In an interview with El Universal, César Michel, director of the Fundación de Mexicanos Migrantes por sus Derechos Políticos said it very clearly: the 500 deputies of the Congress of the Union should represent the more than 160 million Mexicans living in the world and not only the 126 million living within the country.

Remittances: from celebrity to political representation

According to the think tank Pew Research, in 2019 alone, people of Mexican origin represented almost 62% of the Hispanic population in the United States, this adds up to some 37.2 million people. The figure is equivalent to the total number of inhabitants of Mexico City plus the State of Mexico, Jalisco and Coahuila.

If Mexican migrants were a country, they would be almost the size of Canada.

In one of his always pedagogical tweets, Jonathan Heath (deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico), explained that dollars sent by migrants have accumulated eight consecutive years of growth and reached a proportion of 4% of gross domestic product (GDP). This exceeds oil exports and most manufacturing exports (excluding automotive).

Remittances have also been fundamental in maintaining exchange rate stability, which is no small feat at a time of global volatility.

In 2021, Mexico was already the second largest remittance-receiving economy in the world, surpassing China and trailing only India.

According to the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA), last year 11,129,496 Mexicans received remittances in our country. CEMLA calculates (based on the National Survey of Financial Inclusion 2021) that 4.9 million households receive remittances from their fellow countrymen, that is, 1 out of every 7 in the country.

With all this,the countrymen want to go from heroes to protagonists, since they know the brutal economic weight that their shipments have on the macro and micro national economy, it should serve for much more than keeping the social temperature stable in a country where 43.9% of the total population lives in poverty.

"The remittances argument is good, but the power of the Mexican community abroad is much greater because we are also the ones who consume the most of what Mexico trades. That's why we want to be seen as more than just remittance generators," Artemio Arriola, president of Casa Michoacán in Chicago and political director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said in a recent interview.

One of the points demanded by Mexicans in exile is that candidates be allowed to campaign abroad so that migrants can cast an informed vote and above all, a vote for the candidates who have the best proposal to support their families, to whom they send an average of $401 per month religiously even in the worst economic crisis during 2018.

@ba_anderson

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