American immigration to Mexico is booming. Even Minute Men are going south - and happy about it. Which makes you wonder what are they trying to get away from. Maybe because these affluent expatriates can surround themselves with opulence and people willing to wait on them for even less than in the U.S.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - In the past 10 years, new Mexican beach resorts have attracted a flood of American expatriates to retirement and second home communities.
Last year, the Dallas Morning News reported that more than 1 million Americans now live in Mexico, at least part time, five times the number of 10 years ago. The U.S. State Department reported in October 2004 that 385,000 live there year round. That number is almost certainly higher today.
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Taking Baja South
By Reed Johnson
Los Angeles Times Magazine
October 14, 2007
...Even before last year's massive demonstrations in downtown L.A., in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest what they regard as draconian immigration policies, U.S. politicians, the media and the public have fixated on the flow of human traffic across the border. But far less attention has been paid to a parallel phenomenon with equally profound implications: the growing hordes of U.S. residents who are roosting throughout Mexico and, to a lesser degree, Central and South America.
Today, an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Americans—or, as Mexicans refer to them, norteamericanos—along with roughly half that many Canadians make their homes in Mexico, either as permanent residents or part-timers. Though many of the newcomers are semi- or fully retired, others hold FM2 and FM3 visas that permit them to work in their new country. And though the Mexican Constitution places certain restrictions on them, such as prohibiting involvement in Mexican politics, norteamericanos generally enjoy open, privileged lives compared with the millions of Mexican illegals skulking in the shadows of the underground U.S. economy...
...Mario Rubio Cota, a supervisor with Construcciones Masocco, which is developing Lomas del Centenario. Plenty of wide- open land, Rubio said. No meddlesome homeowners' councils telling you what color to paint your house....
[Rubio and the author drove by] one of the 50 or so existing homes, which resemble a New Urbanist version of a Mexican colonial-style house, complete with ornamental cupola and brightly painted in traditional Mexican colors. Wealthier buyers can add extras, such as a spare bedroom, a separate mother-in-law unit or a rooftop deck. The men offered to show me one of the larger models, belonging to an American couple who weren't at home. Just as he was about to unlock the front door, Rubio paused. "It's a funny thing about this couple," he said. "He's a Minuteman, but he's retired in Mexico. It's a very nice couple, everything that is the opposite of what the group represents. Very adaptive to the community."
Gazing past the home's swimming pool, toward the distant mountains that rise over the bay of La Paz, I pondered the idea that a member of the armed U.S. citizens group that patrols the border to prevent desperate Mexican illegals from crossing into the U.S. has opted to spend his golden years in the very same country those immigrants are trying to escape.
Rubio told me that the Minuteman and his wife speak a little Spanish and want to learn more. He said that they and other Americans are constantly asking for his perspective on the immigration debate that's raging across the border. "That's their mentality," he said. "Adapt to the culture as opposed to having the culture adapt to them. And that's the kind of thinking you find throughout with the Americans retiring in Mexico"....
for link to complete LA Times article click title to this post
CNN article and photo: http://www.vallartasource.com/realestate_cnn_report.php
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