Latinas in the U.S. send more than a quarter of all remittances to Mexico, study finds

Latinas who have migrated to the U.S. send 28.6% of the total amount of electronic remittances received by Mexico, according to a recent study by the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA, for its initials in Spanish).

The document, titled "The Mexican Female Emigration, Remittance Income, and Financial Inclusion," analyzed a sample of 9.7 million electronic remittances sent from the United States to Mexico by Banorte, a commercial bank in Mexico, between 2021 and 2022.

The study focused on the emigration of Mexican women to the United States, as available data show that in 2020, this country was the destination of 96.5% of female emigrants and 97.5% of male emigrants. In addition, in 2023, the U.S. was be the source of at least 96.2% of Mexico's remittance income.

The study emphasizes that the findings contradict the common perception that Mexican migration to the United States is primarily male, with men leaving to seek better employment opportunities and send remittances to their wives and children.

"This perception overlooks the millions of Mexican women who have emigrated to the United States, work there, and send billions of dollars each year to their families in our country," the study concludes.

The study by CEMLA shows that out of 9,694,304 remittances sent from the United States to Mexico and operated by BANORTE, 32.9% were sent by women, representing 28.6% of the total value in Mexican pesos and dollars of these transfers.

The number closely mirrors the participation of Mexican female migrants in the U.S. labor market. In 2023, the total wages of Mexican immigrant workers reached $329.622 billion, with $231.024 billion earned by men and $98.598 billion by women (29.9% of the total).

"The relative effort made by Mexican migrants in the United States to support their relatives in Mexico by sending remittances is the same for men and women. This, notwithstanding the fact that the average remuneration obtained by women is lower than that of men," the document states.

Remittances sent by women were smaller than those sent by men. In the study sample, the average remittance was US$593, but it was US$515 for those sent by women and US$631 for those sent by men.

However, both women and men sent 17% of their labor income to their relatives in Mexico, the analysis by CEMLA highlights.

In the 2021-2023 period, the document highlights that the salary mass obtained in that country by Mexican migrant women totaled 267,835 million dollars and it is estimated that they sent 47,308 million as electronic remittances, that is, they sent 17.7% of their labor income to their relatives in Mexico.

In the case of Mexican migrant men, during those three years, their wage bill totaled 664,545 million dollars and it is estimated that they sent 118,234 million dollars as electronic remittances, that is, 17.8% of that labor income.