This is a story of anti-immigrant backlash involving the USA and Mexico. But this is not the story you’re used to hearing.
In Mexico at the moment, there is a ¡Fuera gringos! movement. (But this movement is not limited to Mexico. I have also seen manifestations of it throughout Latin America in recent months.)
The translation is: “Gringos, get out!” A gringo, in Spanish, is a (usually) light-skinned person from the United States.
So a more complete, if awkward, translation would be, “Light-skinned Americans, get out!”
Or maybe: “Yankee, go home!” or (the more racially charged version) “Whitey, go home!”
Whatever the translation (there is no concise, universally agreed English translation of “gringo”), the message here is not subtle.
How did this come about?
Mexicans used to welcome American visitors, so long as we brought dollars, and behaved well. If we were only visiting, they didn’t mind if our grasp of the local language was limited to high school Spanish.
Then came COVID-19. During the pandemic, it became possible for white-collar workers to complete their corporate duties while living far from their home offices. Others became freelancers for multiple firms.
In any case, they no longer needed to be tethered to offices. Many decided to leave the USA (which wasn’t looking too good in the 2020-1 period anyway) and take up residence in a cheaper Latin American country like Mexico.
These are the so-called digital nomads. Most digital nomads have a Millennial hipster vibe (regardless of their age). They don’t bother to learn Spanish, but they smile and say “bro” a lot—in English.
Above all, the digital nomads drive up prices. Since most come from affluent, college-educated backgrounds, they like and expect nice things.
The main complaint against the digital nomads is gentrificación. Digital nomads, by their very presence, cause inflation. This isn’t a hipster American plot against Latin American cities. It’s just something that happens. Supply and demand—Economics 101—at work.
But the digital nomads also resist what anti-immigration activists in el Norte call “integration”. Digital nomads expect service in English. (How can they take time to study Spanish when they’re busy updating Instagram?) They also expect to be able to pay in dollars.
As the digital nomads have become more numerous, they have become more annoying—just like Millennial hipsters who remain in the United States.
In one videotaped protest, a Mexican woman held up a sign, written on a cardboard box in simple English:
“Pay taxes, speak Spanish, use pesos, or get out of here!”
I get it—especially the Spanish part. This year, the Trump administration passed a law making English the official language of the United States…And yet, countless Americans go abroad each day, with the expectation that everyone in the world can—and should—cater to their needs in perfect English.
There are multiple lessons here. First of all, if you decide to live in Colombia, Mexico, or elsewhere abroad, learn the freaking language. Especially if your destination country speaks Spanish. Spanish is not that difficult. Spanish isn’t Korean, Polish, or Mandarin (genuinely difficult languages) and there is absolutely no excuse for not learning it.
But secondly, we see that the anti-open borders/anti-immigration backlash in the USA didn’t happen just because MAGA voters are “racist”, “xenophobic” or (insert your shame word of choice.) When large numbers of people flood into a country, in an uncoordinated and pell-mell fashion, the result is going to be a competition for resources, unacceptable changes to the fabric of local communities, and (sometimes) general chaos.
Very few people are truly willing to fully assimilate into a foreign culture. This is as true of white digital nomads from the USA as it is of Muslim immigrants from Syria, going to secular, LGBTQ-friendly Europe. The average westerner would have absolutely no business living in a Muslim-majority nation. Nor is it a good idea for the typical devout Muslim to move to the USA, the UK, or Australia.
And yes, I’m looking in the mirror here. I like language learning and I speak Spanish. But I’m an impatient gringo, and there are many aspects of life in Mexico that get on my nerves. So I limit my time in Mexico to short visits.
This gringo always gets out, after no more than a week or two south of the border.
-ET