La Jornada – Remittance uptake has tripled in poor areas

Mexico City. The past was an unprecedented year in remittances flowing into Mexico. Official data revealed that the efforts of indigenous immigrants or those with relatives in the country’s poorest municipalities were notable, as the money they sent to their families registered an average increase of 180 percent, compared to the previous year.

Figures from the Bank of Mexico (BdeM) indicate that in 2020, the country’s 10 most deprived municipalities, where 95 percent of their residents live in extreme poverty, received $ 2 million in remittances, while they barely added $ 710,000 in cash transfers. last year. Dollars.

Although the number is small compared to the total that arrived in the country last year, 40 thousand 607 million dollars, it constitutes an oxygen tank for towns where 95 out of every 100 inhabitants do not have sufficient resources to obtain a basic basket of food that does not contain basic services. Like electricity or water, not to mention financial services or the Internet.

According to the latest study by the National Council for the Assessment of Social Development Policy, the country’s 10 poorest municipalities are located in Oaxaca and Chiapas, two of the most historically marginalized states in the country.

They are Santos Reyes Yukona, Santa Maria Zaniza, San Juan Uzulotepec, Kuekoyan de las Flores, San Simone Zahuatlán, in Oaxaca. Aldama, Chanal, San Juan Kancock, San Andres Duraznal and Nicholas Ruiz, in Chiapas. These are areas where families do not have the minimum income of $ 1.90 a day (39 pesos), the level the World Bank considers extreme poverty.

In a recent study, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean highlighted that without the support for the remittances that citizens living in the United States send to their families in Mexico, the country would have recorded an increase in household poverty of up to 15 percent. The result of the epidemic.

Shipments give a notice

The poorest municipality in the country is Santos Reyes Yucuná, the Mixtec community, where 99 percent of its 1,300 residents live in poverty and do not receive remittance support, because according to BdeM data, they did not receive in 2020 (or any other year) a dollar. From outside.

The second poorest entity is also located in Oaxaca. It’s Santa Maria Zaneza, the place where just over 2,000 people live, and in 2020 it received seven times as much remittances as it was in 2019, rising from 30,000 to $ 210,000 (600 percent more).

By poverty level, they follow Adima (Chiapas), whose remittances have increased by 26 percent, from $ 150,000 to $ 190,000; Chanal (Chiapas), an increase of 580 percent, from 70 thousand to 480 thousand dollars; San Juan Kancock, 300%, $ 20,000-80,000; San Andres Duraznal (Chiapas), 340 percent, from 80,000 to 350,000 dollars; San Juan Uzulotbek (Oaxaca), 115 percent, from $ 70,000 to $ 150,000; Nicholas Ruiz (Chiapas), 300 percent, $ 1,000 to $ 4,000; Coicoyán de las Flores (Oaxaca), 400 percent, from $ 20,000 to $ 100,000, and San Simon Zahwatlan (Oaxaca), 7 percent, from $ 2,800 to $ 3,000.

Although the amounts are low compared to what reaches other entities, remittances are vital for poorer municipalities, because according to the BdeM analysis, a higher proportion of the low-income population depends on the importance of receiving foreign currency from a country. An immigrant relative.