Reversal of fortune / Remittances now coming north from Mexico

And now for a story that screams out “man bites dog.” Things are so bleak with the U.S. economy these days that some unemployed illegal immigrants are actually being sent money from their likewise struggling families in Mexico. Call it remittances in reverse. It’s a curious tale and a lamentable sign of the times in the immigration debate.

A recent article in The New York Times highlighted this phenomenon by relying on interviews with Mexican officials, money-transfer operators, immigration experts and relatives of out-of-work migrants.

Among others, the newspaper talked to Miguel Salcedo, a resident of Miahuatlan, Mexico, whose son is an illegal immigrant living in San Diego. In better days, we are told, Salcedo’s son would send money home. Now the dollars, or rather the pesos, are flowing in the opposite direction. Salcedo is scraping together whatever he can and wiring it north to help his son eat.

Why send money? Because that’s what parents do when their kids are in need, no matter where those kids happen to be or what circumstances took them there. That part of the story makes perfect sense.

But the rest doesn’t fit in with some common immigration narratives at all.

For one thing, immigration restrictionists sometimes justify their call for a crackdown on illegal immigration by harping on the billions of dollars in remittances that illegal immigrants send home to relatives in Mexico. The idea that so much money is leaving the country really bothers them.

So do they feel any better knowing that some money is now entering the United States? Is this an argument for allowing illegal immigrants to remain here? That sounds silly.

But then so did the initial concern about remittances. After all, this is the immigrants’ money, and they can do with it what they want.

What isn’t silly is the predicament that many Mexicans now find themselves in, with more and more of them sending money north to relatives who, let’s not forget, came here to help their families down south. This can’t continue, obviously.

It sounds like a lot of Mexican families are going to have to make some tough decisions about whether they’ll be better off financially if their children remain in the United States or come home.

According to experts, many Mexican immigrants have returned home because of the bad U.S. economy, and that trend might continue. Or maybe the immigrants – and their families – will just try to wait out the storm and hope the jobs come back.

It’s a strategy that Americans know well.