Turns out there's another immigration crisis in Mexico, but it's not at their northern border. The Los Angeles Times reported about Mexico City residents being fed up with the increasing number of Americans who had moved to the area for the lower cost of living.
The native residents, commonly referred to as chilangos, don't appreciate how many of the Americans who are moving to Mexico's capital are pricing them out of homes, mainly speak English, and have a general lack of initiative to assimilate to the culture. It has reach the point to where posters are being placed around neighborhoods reading, “New to the city? Working remotely? You’re a f***ing plague and the locals f***ing hate you. Leave."
The trend of Americans moving to Mexico City had started long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has only increased in the time since 2020 as many jobs are more open to remote work:
Fernando Bustos Gorozpe was sitting with friends in a cafe here when he realized that — once again — they were outnumbered.
"We’re the only brown people," said Bustos, a 38-year-old writer and university professor. "We’re the only people speaking Spanish except the waiters."
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At Lardo, a Mediterranean restaurant where, on any given night, three-quarters of the tables are filled with foreigners, a Mexican man in a well-cut suit recently took a seat at the bar, gazed at the English-language menu before him and sighed as he handed it back: "A menu in Spanish, please."
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Omar Euroza, a barista at a coffee shop in Roma, said rent for his apartment in the city’s historic center, another place where foreigners are flocking, has more than doubled over the last five years. Nearby, renters have been pushed out as entire buildings are turned into upscale apartments.
“Some people order in English and get mad when I don’t understand them.”
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While many are worried about the impact the large influx of Americans will have on their neighborhoods, other residents do appreciate the extra business the gringos bring since they make more money than the average chilango.
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