Long an exporter of talent, Latin America is now importing it
In Portugal, where the economy shrank in four of the past five years, a
generation of young Magellans has set off seeking work. Brazil now admits more
immigrants (legal ones, at least) from Europe and the United States than from
Latin America. Remittances from Brazil to Portugal are greater than those from
Portugal to Brazil, says the World Bank. The same is true between Mexico and
Spain. Spaniards in Argentina send home more than $1 billion a year, four times
the amount that flows in the other direction.
Foreign firms are flocking to Latin America to service its new middle class.
When starting up, most send expatriates to manage their operations. French
executives in Mexico are overseeing a new cosmetics industry, which includes the
world’s biggest hair-dye factory, opened in December by L’Oréal. In January
Volkswagen inaugurated a big new engine plant to complement its gigantic car
factory in Puebla (where a pumpernickel bakery feeds some of the 90 German VW
executives based in Mexico).
