Despite Trump, remittances are the main generator of foreign currency for Mexico

2025, remittances from Mexicans living abroad remained the main generator of foreign currency for the national economy, even though they registered a slight decrease compared to the previous year, in a context marked by the tightening of United States immigration policy under the government of Donald Trump.

According to data from the Bank of Mexico (BdeM), the country received 61,791 million dollars in remittances during 2025, an amount lower than the 64,746 million registered in 2024, which implied an annual drop of around 4.6 percent, the first decrease in more than a decade.

Despite this decline, the resources that arrive from compatriots, mainly from the United States, continue above those generated by other key sectors of the Mexican economy, such as agri-food, foreign direct investment (FDI), international tourism and oil exports.

In 2025, the manufacturing industry was the productive sector that contributed the most foreign exchange to the country with 413,322 million dollars. Within it, the automotive subsector generated 152,137 million dollars. However, as in previous years, this activity depends largely on imports of inputs, machinery and auto parts, so its net contribution of foreign currency is not directly comparable with the flow of remittances.

After manufacturing and the automotive sector, remittances were the main source of dollars for the Mexican economy, far exceeding the income of the agri-food sector, which, according to the BdeM, in 2025 totaled 51,187 million dollars.

In fourth place was foreign direct investment, which according to data from the Ministry of Economy, amounted to 41,871 million dollars in 2025, while international tourism, according to the ministry in charge, generated 34,398 million. Hydrocarbon exports were placed further behind, according to Petróleos Mexicanos, with a value of 20,598 million dollars.

The behavior of remittances during 2025 was influenced by various external factors, including the deterioration of the labor market in the United States and the tightening of immigration policies promoted by the Donald Trump administration, which increased fear of deportations among migrant workers and reduced the number of shipments for several months of the year.

For decades, Mexico’s main foreign exchange generator was the sale of oil abroad; However, that leadership began to dilute in the middle of the last decade due to the decrease in oil exports and the growth of other sectors, particularly agri-food and remittances.

After the covid-19 health crisis, money transfers from abroad registered unprecedented growth that led this flow to become, since 2020, one of the external pillars of the Mexican economy.

Although a moderation was observed in 2025 compared to the record reached in 2024, remittances continue to be a fundamental support for more than 4 million households and one of the largest generators of foreign currency for the country, even in the midst of a more adverse international environment for Mexican migrants.