The money Mexican immigrants working in the U.S. send home amounts to more than all foreign direct investment here.

So what does it mean for the Mexican economy if immigration to the U.S. from Mexico slides to zero, and remittances fall flat?

The U.S. recession, then slow U.S. economic growth over the past two years, plus tighter border security and anti-immigrant laws at the state level have conspired to either drive immigrants back to Mexico or convince people here to sit tight. Deportations have increased as well. Meanwhile, drug violence along the border and cartels’ targeting of migrants has also deterred immigration north. Together those trends have put a dent in the dollars Mexicans wire home.

Both remittances and foreign direct investment are well off the highs reached before the recession, $26 billion in 2007 and $27 billion in 2008, respectively.

The cash sent back to Mexican families totaled just $22.4 billion in 2012, down 1.6 percent in dollar terms from the previous year (partly due to an appreciating peso), or up less than 1 percent in pesos adjusted for inflation. By comparison, foreign direct investment last year isn’t likely to reach the $20 billion mark, compared with $20.4 billion a year earlier.

In Latin America’s second-largest economy, income from remittances ranks just below what Mexico earns from petroleum, tourism and the automotive industry –- yet remittances account for only 2.3 percent of the GDP.

via Slow U.S. growth, zero immigration hurt remittances to Mexico | SmartPlanet.