While approval ratings among Mexicans toward U.S. President Donald Trump and his stated policy positions directed at the country could not sink lower, part of the tour and travel industry in Mexico is turning the situation into a positive by redeploying English speaking migrants returning to Mexico to enter the tourism industry.
Just how intense is the feeling toward Trump in Mexico? A report broadcast by PBS last week summed it up this way: “Nearly everything he (Trump) does or says about immigration, a promised border wall or the North American trade arrangement dominates Mexican media. Even on the car radio in a cab stuck in a Mexico City traffic jam, the passenger keeps hearing talk of President Trump … He has been depicted in a newspaper cartoon in a strait jacket; the headline ‘El Fascistoid Trump,’ a play on the word fascist, appears under a magazine cover photo. A recent newspaper poll put his favorability rating in Mexico at 3 percent.”
Given such an environment, the expectation in Mexico is widespread that many Mexican nationals in the United States will be returning to the country—either through deportation or of their own volition.
Se Habla Ingles: The situation has prompted the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (Asociación Mexicana de Agencias de Viajes , or AMAV) to encourage to support for Mexican migrants deported from the United States by hiring them and giving them the opportunity to obtain an income.
The logic of such a policy, as reported by the Mexican trade news portal, REPORTUR.mx, seems to be this: With the Mexican peso down 40 percent against the U.S. dollar over the past three years, Mexican tourism officials are making a major move to attract American visitors; most of the returning Mexicans speak English and would fit right in the growing ranks of employees needed to serve English-speaking Americans.
Said AMAV President Juan Carlos Castañeda Carrión: “We can take advantage of these difficult situation, since there is a high demand because of the growth we’ve had in recent years (Even if) they will not be paid the same as they earned In the United States, it will be a steady income.”
Another factor motivating the Mexican travel trade has been the call from some quarters—such as the National Human Rights Commission—to reallocate funds for tourism promotion to government spending programs that would provide more direct relief for returning Mexican migrants.
Great article