Mexico's migrants return as the American dream fades

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By Ignacio de los Reyes
BBC Mundo, Mexico City

Rural towns are changing as migrants bring new influences Silvano Ramos, 36, left his home of Chilcuautla, a town of 12,000 inhabitants in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, 12 years ago. He left, like so many others, in search of the American dream. 

Rural towns are changing as migrants bring new influences

He crossed the river Rio Grande - or Rio Bravo as it's known in Mexico - along the Texas border to work illegally as a construction worker in Nevada.
But when the US economy began to stall with the housing market collapse six years ago, he decided to leave that dream behind. Last January he became the mayor of Chilcuautla, where 80% of the population has a family member in the US.
He represents a new wave of Mexicans who are deciding to return home - though it is unclear whether their homeland is ready to take them all back.

Improving economy

"The sad situation is that we are not prepared to welcome so many migrants. It is worrying, there will be chaos if they start returning en masse, there's not much we can offer them here," Mayor Ramos tells the BBC. Some 400,000 Mexicans returned last year, the country's National Migration Institute (INM) says.

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