Mexican Diplomatic Continuity with NAFTA Partners

FSN News: Special Report

January 10, 2013

With little opposition, the Mexican Senate ratified this week the nomination of Eduardo Medina Mora as Mexico’s new ambassador to the United States. In a presentation to the Senate’s foreign affairs commission broadcast on the Congress Channel, Medina sketched out his views on the parameters, problems and promises of the Mexico-U.S. relationship.  A longtime mover and shaker on Mexico´s political scene, Medina touched on immigration, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), migrant remittances, arms trafficking and drug legalization. Notably, he did not speak about outstanding environmental issues between Mexico and the U.S. per se.

“Few problems are as complex in the relations with the U.S. as this one,” Medina said of the immigration question.

According to the lawyer by profession, Mexican diplomats will have to keep careful tabs not only the progress of immigration reform in Washington, but ongoing initiatives at the state level as well. He said cross-border collaborations were needed to improve the repatriation process of Mexican nationals, especially women and children.  In a long-range analysis of migration trends, Medina predicted relatively less of his countrymen (and women) will relocate to the U.S. in the future due to a drop in fertility rates among Mexican women and the looming end of Mexico´s demographic bonus of a young, plentiful labor force.  In Medina´s estimation, however, the U.S. will still need to continue “importing people to keep growing.”

Remittances are Down and Mexico Feels the Pain

ABC News/Univision: By Quentin Pinoteau

Agustin Fuentes works multiple construction jobs in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, a working class suburb east of Mexico City. Until recently, his nephew was studying in a public university in the nearby city of Puebla, thanks to the money sent to Agustin's family by a niece who cleans homes in Chicago.

But as wages get lower in the U.S., and job opportunities dwindle, funds sent from abroad have decreased, and Agustin's nephew can no longer afford to go to university.

"Two years ago my niece was sending my sister about 2,000 pesos ($150) every two weeks. Nowadays, she can only send us 1,200, 1,500 pesos ($95-115)," said Fuentes, whose voice quivered as he recalled the difficulties now faced by his family.

"They tell us that they can only work a few days a week when they used to work all week. My niece lost her job in an American family and now she is making piñatas to survive but it is nothing steady," Fuentes said. Read more.