Of every 10 remittances that arrive in Mexico, three are sent by women. Although they are the main beneficiary group of these remittances (71% of the transfers are directed to a female head of the family), they have also increased their journey to the United States, reveals an analysis by the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA).
The head of the Economic Statistics and Latin American Remittances Forum of CEMLA, Jesús Cervantes González, found that of the total number of remittances sent, 30.6% is sent by women. This represents 26.5% of the total value of said transfers.
Thus, of the monthly flow of remittances that in January totaled 3,930.82 million dollars, 1,041 million would have been sent by a Mexican worker.
Interviewed by El Economista, he specified that the remittances sent by women are smaller than those of men.
With the support of information collected in conjunction with Banorte’s analysis area, Cervantes highlighted that the average remittance to Mexico is 438 dollars; those sent by women are $380, while that of men is $464.
“The relative effort that Mexican immigrant women make to send remittances is the same as that made by men, considering that the percentage with which they participate in the wage bill in the United States is practically the same as in the remittances received,” he stressed.
higher schooling
Cervantes González explains that the educational level of immigrant women is slightly higher than that of men. Upon arriving in the United States, Mexican women stand out for taking part-time jobs, to use the rest of the time to prepare more and attend school. This is not the case for men.
However, Mexican immigrants tend to work in lower-paid activities, such as those in the service sector. These two characteristics may explain the lower proportions of remittances sent to their families in Mexico, he argued.
The years of the pandemic
In the note on remittances entitled “Mexican female emigration and income from remittances” it is observed that the rhythm of sending remittances is more intense on Mondays. In contrast, men prefer to make transfers between Friday and Sunday.
In another CEMLA analysis, dedicated to the salary mass of remittances, they detail that between 2020 and 2021, there was a significant number of Mexican migrants who sent higher percentages of their labor income to their families in Mexico.
“The significant increase in the percentage of labor income that they sent in 2020 and 2021 reflects the fundamental aspect of remittances, which is to help compensate for the disadvantaged situation of family income in Mexico.”
Inequality
The economic disadvantage between both countries, the one that originates the remittances and the recipient, worsened between 2020 and 2021. To illustrate this, they showed that the average annual remuneration of a Mexican immigrant worker in the United States in 2021 was equivalent to 523% than that obtained on average by IMSS-insured workers.
Immigrant women earned 471% more than those insured in the IMSS against 542% in the case of men.
The expert highlighted that the number of Mexican women who cross into the United States represents 48.7% of current migration.