Influx of Canadian expats calling Mexico home sparks backlash

Written for Daily Hive by Katarina Szulc, a Canadian journalist based in Mexico. She often focuses on crime, immigration, and politics. 

“They are developing areas called the New Vancouver.”

TikToker Che Guerrero called out Canadians moving to Mexico for what he calls gentrifying communities.

In response to a video posted by a Canadian woman now living in Cabo, Mexico — encouraging other Canadians to move down south — Guerrero says the wave of expats in Mexico is new age colonization.

@myundocumentedass #greenscreen #greenscreenvideo #immigration #undocumentedandunafraid #canada #imperialism #latinxcreatives ♬ Blade Runner 2049 – Synthwave Goose

In her original post, the woman says the average price of a house in Cabo is half of what she would have paid in Canada.

She says she and her family moved to Cabo, they became mortgage-free, gained a rental property, and her young daughter learned Spanish as a second language.

Guerrero’s TikTok response to the woman has amassed nearly four thousand comments, all with varying opinions on the situation.

One commenter thanked Guerrero on behalf of all Mexicans for addressing the influx of foreigners driving up the prices for locals.

While others called Guerrero a Karen for “fabricating outrage.”

Since the rise in work-from-home jobs during the pandemic, Canadians and Americans have started calling Mexico and many other popular vacation destinations home at a rate higher than ever before.

According to Mexico’s federal immigration statistics, in 2022 more than 9,500 temporary residency permits were issued to Americans, nearly double the 5,400 issued in the same period in 2019.

The surge caused outrage amongst housing activists, particularly in Mexico City who say the city has become unaffordable for many locals.

Claudia Sheinbaum — the mayor of Mexico City from 2018 to June 2022 — announced foreign remote workers may be putting pressure on housing prices and directed the city’s housing authority to study the effects of Airbnb.

Rachael Woldoff is a professor of sociology at West Virginia University and author of Digital Nomads: In Search of Freedom, Community, and Meaningful Work in the New Economy.

She says the rise in digital nomads and people moving to countries with developing economies from countries with strong economies is a complex and polarizing trend.

“What will the consequences of this be? I think in general, if we don’t have housing available for the local people, that’s going to be a big problem.”

Woldoff says although she is a proponent for remote work, people living in a different country while earning in their native currency can be problematic.

“They’re going to these places because they can live there with American dollars in countries that are in a state of development where their currency goes a long way. That sounds great.

But there’s another side to it, where it’s exploitative, because there is an image of people coming to a country that is struggling economically, and then settling in there.

That could affect property values, food expenses, all kinds of things.”

In the Facebook page “Expats and Immigrants in Mexico,” one user said “Mexico is so much more expensive than I remember. I remember $800 USD a month for an apartment in Zona Rosa or Condesa (Mexico City). Now, it feels like $2000 is much more normal.”

Another group member commented in response, “Imagine what Mexicans must endure, with the salaries paid here and gentrification.”

Mexico’s federal immigration statistics show numbers are steadily rising along with the country’s housing prices.