Remittances plunge in Mexico: central bank

www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-29 08:55:57

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) — Money sent home by Mexican workers overseas was 17.5 percent lower in September from a year earlier and 13.4 percent lower in the year to end September from the previous one, the Bank of Mexico said Wednesday in a statement.

September’s remittances were 1.74 billion dollars and year-to-end-September transfers were 16.43 billion, the statement said.

Remittances have suffered in Mexico due to a U.S. recession that began in December 2007 but now appears to be coming to an end. Around 10 percent of all Mexico’s 100 million citizens live in the United States, representing around a third of the States’ migrant population.

U.S. authorities have also been enforcing existing immigration legislation more strictly, including raids on businesses that employ large numbers of illegal workers, a move that strikes Mexicans in greater proportion than other groups.

U.S. statistics show that as many as 85 percent of Mexicans living in the United States entered the country illegally, although many of them have since legalized their status