Roundup: Mexico to face social, economic impact after Trump takes office, say experts

Donald Trump's assumption of the U.S. presidency on Jan. 20 will bring social and economic impact to Mexico, some local international relations experts told Xinhua.

The experts voiced this view as Trump vowed, during his presidential campaign, to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, revise or even tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and deport millions of Mexicans.

For David Crow, a professor at Mexico's Center for Economic Research and Studies, U.S.-Mexican relations will face more tensions after Trump takes office as he is expected to adopt a hardened migration policy, which will cause severe consequences for Mexico.

One impact, he said, might be that many Mexicans would willingly return to their home country when faced with the hostile environment created by Trump's rhetoric while many planning to migrate to the United States will likely not do so.

Mexico will have to absorb the costs of labor, education and social services for all these returning migrants, which will affect the already weak economic growth and cause a drop in remittances from the United States, Crow said.

"The impact on Mexico would be very severe, it is simply not possible for it to absorb 2-3 million people in the short-term," he added.

Ana Covarrubias, director of the Center for International Studies at the College of Mexico, said young Mexicans who grew up and went to school in the United States may have to rebuild their lives in Mexico.

Currently, 560,000 of the young Mexicans, known as Dreamers, are protected from deportation due to DACA, an immigration policy begun by an executive order from President Barack Obama in 2012. Trump could easily revoke DACA without the need to go through Congress, Covarrubias said.

"Returning them to Mexico would be a tragedy as they have no family here and do not know the country," she said.@ Crow said, another challenge facing Mexico is that Trump may struggle to get his border wall built since it implies an investment of at least 26 billion U.S. dollars.

He noted that Trump may also instead boost the already constructed barriers and increase the presence of border patrols along the border.

"If the U.S. takes a hard line, we will have these people in Mexico," warned Covarrubias.

"Mexico will doubly lose: absorb many returning migrants without the possibility of offering them work. I see a potentially very serious situation," said the director.

She said that while the Trump administration will unveil its policies in the first 100 days after taking office, Mexico should act rapidly to boost its internal market and also build closer ties with countries like China and Canada. Endi