The Hypocrisy of Americans Traveling to Mexico“We want to pay down our debt and increase our savings, so we can come back to the United States and become homeowners."
The COVID-19 pandemic shifted many workers across industries into a remote world. People can now work in many different locations without the constriction of a physical headquarters to report back to. This has truly shifted how workers have taken their power back and are able to perform work on their own terms and not have a boss looking over their shoulder. That in itself is a really wonderful thing. However, that has also meant that workers are moving abroad to escape the political, social, financial, and cultural incumbrance of being a U.S. citizen but living off the currency rates in cities across the world that have created an environment for remote workers to fill the economic hole of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This doesn’t come without serious displacement in local communities though. In a recent article by New York Times, they documented the stories of Americans that have been feeling the pinch of the sky-rocketing cost of living in American cities like San Diego. A story in particular that caught my eye was the one of Jodi Cilley, who was ‘at peace’ with the cost of living in Tijuana, Mexico, and felt as though her money went further when compared to her life in California.
And while this access to Tijuana, Mexico exists for Americans seeking to escape the sky-high expenses of living in America it is contributing to further colonization and displacement of residents local to Tijuana. American immigration policy has been violently resistant to Mexicans who seek to settle down in the United States. But Americans are still flocking to different cities in Mexico because life in the U.S. and their passport, affords them the ability to escape [just like Senator Ted Cruz when Texas experienced a horrific power failure in the middle of winter].
Keeping people trapped in their own circumstances while seeking a quick escape route seems to be the American vision of what ‘freedom’ means. As a South Asian American, I am not a stranger to the practice of our people who have settled in the United States and purchased homes in Punjab or elsewhere on the South Asian subcontinent. Oftentimes, the American currency goes further in places like Bangladesh, Punjab, or Pakistan. Often, the homes that are constructed back home, are grander than the homes that workers live in when it comes to the U.S. mainland. When it comes to immigrants who have struggled to build a life in the United States, they tend to find solace that they are only in America temporarily and earn money on the basis that they will send it back home or save it for their eventual retirement when they go back to South Asia.
Oftentimes, immigrants don’t even dream of retiring in America, because the reality is that no one can actually afford to retire anymore. That is why they put more effort into building homes in their native country. Remain in Mexico… But not for AmericansIn 2018, under the Trump administration, the Remain in Mexico asylum policy prohibited people on the U.S. Southern border fleeing conflicts and seeking entry into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds, from being able to apply for work permits or otherwise set down roots while the American immigration system sifted through their applications. While people from across the world have sought to come through the U.S. Southern border through very dangerous means, expensive and time-consuming ways, the ease with which Americans are able to enter Mexico and continue to shift the communities within the country and the world, is nothing short of violent colonization in the name of remote work. As a remote worker myself, I have dreamed of working in another country and wanting to work and sightsee in another land, myself. But reading about the violent and degrading ways that people from my own country are causing grief for others, is certainly grounding me in New York City. Often times it is the case, that the same people who want to ‘save up for a house in America’ are the ones who become part of the NIMBY movement and will politically vote against their own interests just to keep a segregated status-quo between themselves and people who are facing the intentional violence of a system stacked against them and keeping them homeless. In the aftermath of the Roe vs Wade decision that was passed down in the United States, there was an emergence of content creators who started outlining the process for moving to Europe, South America, and Asia. They also urged women to move to Blue states where the right to an abortion is protected. There continues to be a growing influence of Americans who are leaving the country —for good while taking the misery of their presence and inflation with them. In the same respect that marginalized people in the United States cannot just move from the American south to blue states, the world collectively is not ready to absorb the devasting impact of American consumerism and the entitlement it brings with them. In this TikTok made by Rolando Cristobal, he talks about the entitlement of a white American woman at a supermarket in Mexico City.  Americans back home, however, continue to not make any progress to remedy the cost of living, the continued degradation of the environment, and the gridlock imposed by Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.    As Americans have been traveling and taking in the sights and experiences in the world around them, they marvel at the walkable cities of Europe where they people watch in cafes outside of Paris and Madrid, but come back and drive to a Starbucks in their community which lacks sidewalks and a lack of greenspace for community-building. The hypocrisy that comes with being an American is proving to be cost-prohibitive for the land they occupy in other countries, and much like your average wealthy transplant in New York City, they do not care who they displace as long as they can enjoy the benefits of communities displaced and removed to make way for them. Kaur Republic is an independent newsletter covering Punjabi Perspectives on American Issues. We are completely funded by our newsletter subscribers and hope that you will consider a monthly or yearly contribution to keep the paywalls off our stories so they can remain open for learning. Follow us on Instagram| Follow Us on Twitter| Follow Navigating Politics with Navjot| Paid Subscribers get an exclusive Weekly Round-Up Newsletter|
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