Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Gringo Invasion, Part II

The news on U.S. immigration is slim today; nothing grabs the headlines a GOP pedophile sex scandal, I suppose.

Just to keep things interesting, I thought I would blog on this article from The Dallas Morning News, about the other immigration problem: the old gringos who are flooding into Mexico for retirement:

What few people – at least, outside of Mexico – have bothered to notice is that while all the nannies, cooks and maids have been heading north to tend the luxury lifestyles of irate Republicans, the gringo hordes have been rushing south to enjoy glorious budget retirements and affordable second homes under the Mexican sun.

Yes, in former California Gov. Pete Wilson's immortal words, "They just keep coming."

For those of you who are just tuning in, this blog has a two-fold purpose: to highlight current news and hopefully further the debate about U.S. immigration reform, and to consider the consequences of American emigration to Mexico. The U.S. State Department estimates that the number of Americans living in Mexico has soared from 200,000 to 1 million (or one-quarter of all U.S. expatriates) in the last decade. My fieldwork in San Miguel de Allende is part of a long-term study of this phenomenon. If you would like to take a look at my field diary from this past summer, follow the first link to the right.

1 comment:

karen said...

This is a very interesting blog. I'd like to subscribe to read regularly. Do you have an RSS feed? (If not, you can get one free through Blogger.) Thanks for writing!