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July 25, 2008 12:27:01 PM CDT

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US Downturn Cuts Migrants' Payments Home

Posted Apr 18, 08 10:30 AM CDT in US,  World 

(Newser) – The downturn in the US economy is also hitting Mexico hard, the Washington Post reports. Money sent home from the US, known as remittances, dropped nearly 7% in January compared with the year before, the biggest plunge in 13 years, says the Mexican government. Without that money, the country's No. 2 source of foreign currency, many Mexicans can’t pay for basic needs.

"Neither the government nor the families who are affected have a good alternative to remittances," says an economics professor. For many, remittances covered a range of costs, including housing, medical, and childcare expenses. And with the relatives supporting them losing their American jobs and even homes, the prospects for the mostly elderly residents left behind in Mexico are grim.

Source Washington Post

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Mexican migrant aid Grupo Beta officer Enrique Enriquez talk to migrants before they cross to the United States, in outskirts Nogales, Mexico, Thursday, May 24, 2007.   (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
Mexican Marcos Garcia, rests in a migrant shelter before trying to cross the U.S. border, in Nogales, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
A group of migrants sit in a bus taking them to the border near the Mexican town of El Tortugo, on the border with Arizona, Wednesday, April 11, 2007.   (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Abel Guzman, a homeless Mexican migrant, sits on an embankment as he eats food given to him by the humanitarian migrant assistance group Angeles del Desierto, or Desert Angels, along the Tijuana river...   (AP Photo/David Maung)
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US economy  • Mexico  • immigrant  • job market  • migrant workers


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