Mexico’s Immigration Backlash Against U.S. Remote Workers - Expats Face hostility
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the growing problem of gentrification and gentrification in Mexico City, Spain, and other major cities across the country. We also talk about the growing number of expats living and working abroad and the impact this is having on the local housing market.
Transcript
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You know how Americans voted for immigration, like, listen, this is too many illegal people coming here,
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but it looks like the economy in the U.S. is kind of pricing Americans out to the point where
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Americans, expats, are moving to Mexico, Spain, and Mexicans and Spain folks are saying,
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get the hell out of here. You're pricing me out. I mean, what are we doing here? Watch this.
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Spain's total population is 49 million. You know how many tourists visited Spain last year?
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94 million. You know what they just were required to do? They were asked to shut down 65,000 to 66,000
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Airbnbs because people are like, that Airbnb used to be my house. That Airbnb used to be the apartment
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I lived in. It's a big problem, but a very different type of an immigration problem.
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If you give Aliyah to this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel.
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So watch this. You may be asking yourself, Pat, I don't really fully understand what this means.
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Well, let me explain to you. Back in 2019, in America, we had roughly 7.4 million people working
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from home. 2019. Do you know that 7.4, 7.5 million went up to 17.3 million in 2023 to 18.1 million.
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Within four years, it increased 131% people working from home. So some of the people are like,
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wait a minute. If I can get paid this $130,000 salary, this $82,000 salary, the $62,000 salary,
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why am I living in San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Fort Worth? Why am I there? What if I go live in
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Mexico? Wow. That would be kind of interesting. Can I do that with the government? Give me an open-ended
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visa. And then people start finding out that, wait a minute, there's 5.5 million to 9 million
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U.S. citizens currently residing abroad because the U.S. government currently does not maintain
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a comprehensive registry of citizens living overseas, making precise counts challenging.
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So it's not like, well, listen, you want to go do your thing. You want to be back here?
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They really don't care. Go live somewhere else. But that's a good thing for the person that's choosing
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to go to a different place because they're saving money. But a bad thing, if they move to the city
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and the people are there saying, rent used to be $500,000, $1,000. Now it's $1,800. What are you
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doing? And that's becoming a problem in a lot of different countries. Specifically, in 2022,
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160,000 U.S. citizens moved to one of 40 countries around the world for work, study, or family reasons.
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If you look at some of the countries, you've got Mexico that has roughly 799,000 citizens
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residing in Mexico, affected by its proximity, affordability, and vibrant culture. Canada's
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got 273,000. UK's got 171 because they speak the same language. Germany's got 153,000. Australia's
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got 117,000 expats of people living there. But I want you to see what happened on 4th of July
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in Mexico City. They witnessed significant unrest protesting taking place because of gentrification
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and mass tourism escalated into violence in the Roma and Condesa neighborhood. People going around
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saying, get out of Mexico. Graffiti with messages that said, gringo, stop stealing our home. Appeared
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on shattered storefronts. Protesters also gathered outside of the U.S. embassy demanding stricter
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housing regulations and better control over tourism. So you know how we get the liberals in our state
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that say, you're racist. You're xenophobic. What's wrong with these immigrants showing you? Guess what
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they're saying in Mexico? This is a city government secretary, Cesar Cravioto, condemned the violence,
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labeling it as what? Go ahead, say it. Xenophobic expressions and emphasizing the need for dialogue.
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Let these Americans come here. The expat, it's okay if they're raising rent. What's wrong with that?
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As foreign tenants earning U.S. level remote salaries flooded in, rents in these markets skyrocketed.
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Some locals reported doubling or even tripling rent in the last five years. This caused many of the
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long-term renters to be moved and evicted to areas that they don't want to be living in because it's
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cheaper. One of the protesters, local college student Michelle Castro, told AP she has watched
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the transformation of a working-class community. This is what she said. There are a lot of foreigners,
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namely Americans, coming to live here. Many say xenophobia, but it's not. It's just that so many
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foreigners come here. Rents are skyrocketing because of Airbnb. Rents are so high that some
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people can't even pay it anymore. You see that shirt picture right there. Gringo, stop stealing
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our homes. And if you don't know what the meaning of gringo is, it's not a salsa dressing. Gringo
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means white folks. Like if you're white, they're talking to you saying, get out if you're in Mexico.
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And remote work has created global labor mobility without matching global regulations. So imagine
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I'm getting my money paid in San Francisco. I go live in Mexico. I pay my taxes in San Francisco,
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take the money that I have and buy it with whatever I have in that area. I'm not even paying taxes in
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there. Many times I'm not paying state taxes. Maybe I'm paying tax for VAT or whatever else they may
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have, but I'm dealing with whatever I'm getting from there. Easy lifestyle. Typically when you would
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see people that would move to states like countries like Mexico and other places, they would be full-on
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expats, older folks, 65, seven years old, retired saying, babe, let's just go live in a nice quiet
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place that other people are living in Mexico. Today, it's younger families, younger workers
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for companies saying, what the hell am I doing sitting over here? Lifestyle pricing me out. I
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can't live in America. I can't afford the lifestyle here. I'll just go live in Mexico with seven of my
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friends. So this was Mexico we're talking about. A lot of it, right? Remember earlier I talked about
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Spain. This is Spain, June or July of 2025, last month, involved creative protests like spraying
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tourists with water guns in Barcelona. Think about that. Even some parts of Italy and Portugal,
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protest slogans were the following. Your Airbnb was my home. Get Airbnb out of my neighborhood.
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Housing is a right, not a business. Forcing Airbnb to remove 65,000 to 66,000 listings due to licensing
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violations, ranging from lacking registration to misrepresenting ownership backed by court rulings
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like Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville, and other places. And even the Barcelona mayor said
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they're aiming to eliminate all short-term rental licenses by 2020, part of a broader strategy to
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restore housing availability. And by the way, we think we're the only ones that are dealing with
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immigration. A lot of people are dealing with immigration, but in a very different way.
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They're worried about people coming in that I used to pay, you know, 20%, 30% of my income was going
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to my rent. Now, 50, 60% of my income is going towards the rent. I can't, how long can I stand
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it? Think about what this means to other areas in America. Miami. There's a lot of people that could
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live in Miami and they're like, you know, rent is 2,500 bucks a month. I can't afford it. New York
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shit show, trillion dollars moves to Miami. Now the $2,500 rent is $4,500. That guy cannot pay the $4,500.
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He just got priced out by immigrants from New York coming to Florida. They're legal,
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but I'm saying they're moving from New York to Florida. By the way, five years ago, I'm looking
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at homes on Manalopan, 30, 40 million auto homes. Billionaires moved to Manalopan. So guess what
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those 30, 40 million auto homes are right now? A hundred million auto homes. What? Who do they price
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out? A lot of people that can't afford that. Obviously we're talking about a different marketplace.
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This is happening at all levels around the world. However, the people overseas, not in America are
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saying, Americans get out, go back home, go move to Palmdale, go move to plantation, go move to a
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complete different city where rent is maybe cheaper in your area. Do not come to us. And some of the
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local politicians are sitting there saying, these guys may have a good point here. We need to do
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something with the Airbnb. Anyways, if you got value out of this video, give it a thumbs up
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and subscribe to the channel. And if you enjoyed this video, there's another video I think you'll
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enjoy. It's a housing shortage video we did of what's going on in the States. Click here to watch