RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE UNEMPLOYMENT GENERATED BY THE COVID-19 ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE SENDING OF REMITTANCES FROM THE US TO MEXICO

Abstract

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, in recent months the world has faced a severe economic recession. The outlook of this recession , caused by the unemployment and the drop in wages in the USA, was not very optimistic, and a strong contracture was expected in the sending of remittancesto Mexico, as has occurred in previous crises, however this did not happen. This is where the hypothesis arises, if there is a correlation between the levels of unemployment with the income of remittances. The study compared the most recent periods of recession, the crisis of 2008 and the current recession that started in 2020. For 2008 a correlation of -0.56 was found, while for 2020 a correlation of 0.92 was found. In other words, despite the increase in unemployment in the United States, the number of remittances received in Mexico reached historical levels never seen before. Throughout the research, the main causes of this atypical behavior are highlighted, such as the granting of government support by the United States, the feeling of solidarity of migrants towards their families, as well as the depreciation of the peso against the dollar that
same year.