Report: Mexicans in the US are now poorer than Mexicans living in Mexico
By ONANTZIN News
2011-10-03
Los Angeles, CA -- Due to the economic recession that has plagued the US since 2008, Mexicans living in the country are now worse off than their counterparts living in Mexico, according to a report by the Center for Economic Prosperity (CEP).
The finding, which incorporates census data from the past 10 years, is the latest harbinger of bad news for millions of US Mexicans, whose recession-related misfortunes keep sinking to new lows.
According to the report, available at the CEP website, the median net worth of Mexicans in the US fell 66%, from $18,359 in 2005 to $6,325 in 2009. In contrast, the median net worth of Mexicans in Mexico stood at 8,000 as of 2010 (based on Mexico's 2011 census data).
While this disparity in net worth may seem insignificant, the report also indicates that Mexicans in the US are now receiving – for the first time in US History – wire transfers from their relatives in Mexico in order to make ends meet.
In addition, the report identifies several Mexican charities – in Mexico's towns along the border – that organize canned food and clothing drives and send the donations to the less fortunate children of Mexican parents in the US.
Most striking of all, however, is data from the report that indicates Mexicans in Southern California are no longer able to afford a visit to their dentists in Tijuana, who demand upfront payment and refuse to grant them credit due to lack of adequate collateral (assets) to secure their debt.
These sudden changes – to conditions that no other Mexican generation in the US ever experienced – are a testament to the devastating effects of the recession.
In 2008, the US housing market collapsed, decimating property values across America. The ensuing recession affected everyone, but hit Mexicans especially hard because they had most of their wealth, if not all, tied to the housing sector.
With their one valuable asset either under water or repossessed by Bank of America, most Mexicans found themselves in a peculiar situation: completely broke. To add insult to injury, those who lost their houses to Bank of America were also stripped of all their personal belongings (including their valuable chickens) by the multinational bank, which claimed the personal items served as a form of debt recuperation.
Without any assets to call their own, the net worth for Mexicans in the US fell to levels so abjectly low, all it takes for a Mexican in Mexico to be better off than one is the US (according to the CEP) is owning a few chickens – a sobering reality for a group of people that migrated to the US to escape poverty, only to end up in a worse situation.