A summary of my research here in Mexico

Can better financial services improve the lives of migrants and their families? This is the fundamental, motivating question behind my 2010-2011 research project in Mexico.  Microfinance is a movement to develop new tools and institutions that provide financial services to low-income groups.  In the last thirty years, microfinance has expanded from a few lone banks in Southeast Asia to include over 1000 institutions in 100 countries, reaching more than 150 million clients.  Microfinance is no longer a novel experiment but an entrenched camp of the development landscape.  As microfinance has grown, it has evolved differently in each region, demanding new tools as it expands wider and deeper.  My Fulbright-García Robles project is to explore the state of the microfinance sector in central Mexico with a specific interest in what tools have been developed to reach migrant communities.

Zacatecas is an interesting place to work because of a long history of international migration and a relatively undeveloped microfinance sector.  My first goal is to review the current financial sector in Zacatecas, documenting the credit and financial services available.  So far, my research has shown that financial programs for migrants are offered by a few private sector actors concentrated in the three largest cities - Zacatecas City, Guadalupe, and Fresnillo – and a few key government programs.  Rural options are scarce and costly.  Government programs include the Secretary of Economic Development’s “Zacatecano, Invierte en Zacatecas”, which offers start-up funding for migrant owned business, “Fondo Plata”, which supplies larger credit lines, and Sedesol’s “3x1 para Migrantes”.  A new program, “1x1”, looks to replace “3x1” as a funding source for productive projects by providing zero interest loans for migrant-owned businesses.

Isabel Cruz, founder of Amucss, received the
HESTA Onnasis award on immigration and
human development in 2010 at the
Global Forum on Migration and Development 

To compile and describe successful models, I am visiting prominent microfinance organizations throughout central Mexico.  In nearby states, such as Guanajuato and Puebla, innovative approaches to microfinance have been pioneered. One front-runner in the field, Mexico City-based Amucss, has developed affordable life insurance plans for migrants, remittance-based income insurance, body repatriation funds, and is developing a rural health insurance program.  Another innovation is the microfinance network, “Envíos Confianza”, which enables small banks to become international remittance providers, linking money transfers to savings accounts, education funds, and insurance programs.

Migration entails unique financial demands in terms of costs, risks, precariousness, and barriers to access financial services.  To better understand the impact of these conditions, I am surveying the federations of clubs of migrants in southern California and Chicago.  The goals of the survey are to test the level of interest in participating in hometown microfinance banks and to collect information on business perspective of these migrants, financial activity (health insurance, use of loans, etc.), and financial needs.

In addition to writing an academic article for publication, I am using these three research activities to equip the Federación Zacatecana (FEDZAC), the Zacatecan Federation of Clubs of Migrants, with a toolkit to design and expand a new credit program for migrant-financed productive projects in Zacatecas.  This program will begin operation later in 2011. With expanded services, migrants will be able to better manage the financial risks and costs incurred during international migration and access new avenues for investment in their hometowns. Reducing the financial gap in Zacatecas is a crucial step towards raising the developmental impact of international migration.

Pasajeros con destino: Nochistlan

I recently returned from a whirlwind visit to Nochistlan, a ranching city in southern Zacatecas.  My fellow fulbright researchers and I were invited by the president of FedZac to visit a few migrant projects in the city, experience the ranching culture, and stay with his family. Fedzac is an umbrella organization that represents all the federations of migrant clubs of Zacatecan migrants living in the US.  

3x1 Paving Project in Zoquite

A migrant club, called a 'Hometown Association' is a charitable organization of migrants from the same hometown that organizes cultural events and participates in development projects back home, often through 3x1 para Migrantes.  Nochistlan has one of the highest concentration of 3x1 projects, a unique government program that triples migrants' community investments.  I will write about 3x1 more extensively sometime soon, but it is a very unique program that encourages investment and has realized paving of roads, new museums, schools, electricity, drainage projects - all financed by migrants in the US, the local government, the 

state government, and the federal government (that's why they call it 3 for 1). 

David Jimenez, Basco (M4D), Leila (INAFI),
Daniella, Me, Aaron, Manuel (Fedzac)

Along with my two fellow Fulbright researchers here, we were traveling with two acquaintances we met at the recent migration and development conference, the People's Global Action on Migration Development, and Human Rights, which we attended in Mexico City. One of them, Leila Rispens-Noel, is a very knowledgeable and helpful contact for the future of my project.  She is the Senior Advisor of INAFI, an international organization supporting 'alternative finance' institutions.  Leila is herself a migrant from the Philippines to the Netherlands, and participates actively in development in the Philippines through her own 'hometown association'. She is the president of a group called Wimler Partnership for Social Progress, the foundation she set up to help her hometown and nearby places in Mindanao.  Leila has done a lot of work in migration and microfinance, and is advising a very interesting research project in the European Union.  The 3 year project, Harnessing the Potentials of Migration for Development: Linking Microfinance Institutions and Immigrant Associations,  is equipping microfinance banks to act as money transfer companies for migrant remittances (money they send back to their home country), supporting new remittance-microfinance projects between Europe and Africa.  She was very encouraging about my research here on the possibilities of designing a migrant-funded and migrant-owned microfinance bank in Zacatecas.  Basco, another new friend from the migration conference, is also a Filipino living permanently in the Netherlands, who is working full time in migration and development.  He has worked on women's economic empowerment projects in the Philippines using remittances and is working on improving diaspora organization in the Netherlands, a topic very related to my undergraduate thesis at the University of Arizona. Basco also plays a mean game of billiards, as I found out in Nochistlan, and dances with Michael Jackson moves.  He was a favorite of all the grandchildren at the Jimenez house. 

Our hosts were the parents of Efrain Jimenez, the president of FedZac.  They are a hard-working, well respected family in the community and opened up their house and table to us.  There were some interesting cultural experiences for me as Nochistlan is a much more rural, family-centered community as to what I've experienced up until now in Mexico. The Jimenez family is very large, first of all, as the father, called with the respectful title 'Don', has several brothers and sisters, and he and Efrain's mom themselves have 12 children.  Don Jimenez and his Sra. Jimenez had a clock on the wall with a picture of each child on the hour.  The sense of family inclusion and tradition is very strong there. Every morning, grandchildren would stop by the house to greet their grandparents, the grandchildren kissing them on the hand and then receiving a blessing and a cookie. 

Jimenez ranch in Nochistlan

The father was a very successful cattle trader and increased his business until he was able to purchase over a 1000 acres of land. The land is now divided between the 6 sons, the girls inheriting money from sold land rather than the land itself.  Efrain explained that the tradition is to keep the land in ownership of the men so sons-in-law won't cause strife when ranching on the land. 

In addition to getting to know the Jimenez family, I also ate homemade menudo for breakfast, shot down avocados from a tree with a rifle, drank more mezcal (tequila) than I probably will for the rest of my life, and developed a new love for banda and mariachi music.  When in Zacatecas...

I've uploaded an album of pictures to my facebook profile.  You can see our visit to a migrant funded mezcal factory, a visit to a community museum built with 3x1 funds, some great ranch views and culture, and a few pictures of me playing fiddle for a big family dinner! I played a few fiddle tunes, sang turkey in the straw, and Cotton Eye Joe because they requested a country song. That was the only one I could think of (thanks dad) :)   

                                                                                                   My facebook album of Nochistlan, Zacatecas (available to all). 

And here's a short video of Leather Britches in Mexico. Enjoy