and because of this send money every year, are interested in political life and want to participate and be taken into account,” argued Rodolfo Farias Rodriguez, council member of the Michoacan State Electoral Institute. “But the conditions do not exist for them to do it in a massive way.”
According to Farias, the little participation from across the border has been largely confined to migrants who have their US residency papers in order. He suggested that the high cost of migrant mail-in voting could be curbed by instituting electronic voting.
Historically, demands that Mexican expatriates have a say in their home country’s affairs have periodically resounded on the political scene. But various analysts have offered a smorgasboard of explanations why few migrants
have participated in the electoral processes in which they have had the opportunity to do so since 2006. Different factors including red tape, lack of information, short registration periods, apathy, general distrust of politicians and political parties, and a growing disconnection to events in the home country have all been identified as dampening broader political participation.