Description
Mexican immigrants in the United States send billions of dollars to support family members who reside in Mexico. Migrant families also support the local town in which their family lives in Mexico through HTAs (Clubes de Oriundos, or Hometown Associations), which are nonprofit Mexican clubs of migrants from the same area of Mexico who support their hometown with financial contributions. As HTAs have grown, the Mexican government has become involved through the establishment of The 3×1 for Migrants Program.This case study was conducted to ascertain the effect of The 3×1 for Migrants Program, which officially became a Mexican federal program in 2002, through which Mexicans living abroad could invest in their local communities. The 3×1 program allows Mexicans living anywhere in the world to invest in their local communities by pooling together their financial resources. Each level of the Mexican government at the municipal, state, and federal levels match their collective financial contribution. For every dollar donated, local communities receive three additional dollars, hence the term 3×1. Interviews were conducted with leadership members of Asociación Civil El Monte (ACEM) in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as at least 30 of the beneficiaries from the projects that ACEM has completed over the years in the town of El Monte (pseudonym), Guanajuato, Mexico. In addition, 12 El Monte residents who did not directly benefit from the 3×1 projects, but who were community members that had witnessed their town’s development through the 3×1 program were also interviewed. The findings indicated that ACEM leaders not only support communal projects but also understand the residents’ desires and needs for public works. Nevertheless, the lack of follow-through from the government and the towns’ residents led to the resultant projects to be those that have an immediate social impact that are more aesthetic than a long-term investment in schools and health clinics. The findings also suggest Mexico’s complex relationship with its organized diaspora living in the United States. Given such history, the Guanajuato HTAs are more transitory, and are in danger of disbanding after completing a project or may suffer as a result of lack of community leadership and the existing climate of Mexico and the United States.
