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“Here we speak Spanish!” “Gringos, go back to your country!” “Mexico for Mexicans!” read the signs of angry demonstrators on the streets of Mexico City earlier this month. Discontent with rising housing costs in the city and the ever-increasing presence of American expatriates led to an outbreak of violent protests in the tony neighborhoods of La Condesa and La Roma, where fashionable restaurants and digital nomads have become ubiquitous.
Mexicans have long resented the intrusion of their northern neighbors into the capital, but the expansion of remote work after the Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing number of retirees have put significantly more pressure on Mexico City’s real estate market, which combines the attractions and amenities of high urban life with a low cost of living—at least when your paycheck or bank account is denominated in dollars. The influx has infuriated locals, who have suffered the cost in increasing rents and cost of living.
Lower-class Mexicans have suffered the most. Areas of Mexico City that were traditionally home to working-class Mexicans have been bought up by investors and foreigners and turned into tourist shops, bars, expensive restaurants, and—most hated of all—Airbnbs. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of Airbnbs in Mexico city has exploded by over 170 percent, the vast majority of which are regular homes and apartments that have been converted into tourist accommodations. Housing expansion in the city has been nowhere close to keeping up, and as a result the median rent has skyrocketed 45.7 percent since 2020. Many locals have had to pack up and head to the outskirts of the city to find affordable housing, a circumstance which has naturally led to disdain for tourists and foreigners among the native population. Many feel like they are being colonized by American interlopers (a common theme in Mexican politics).
Things came to a head over the weekend of July 4, when planned protests against gentrification and tourism turned into a riot as some participants began smashing the facades of tourist-oriented businesses and restaurants. Others vandalized upscale neighborhoods with graffiti or stickers telling tourists and foreigners to “get out of Mexico.”
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed sympathy towards the frustrations of the protestors, but condemned the outburst for its xenophobia. “There cannot be a call, however legitimate its cause—which in this case is gentrification—a call to ‘Leave!’ for whatever nationality in our country.”
As a result of the public outrage, the government of Mexico City has released a 14-point plan to improve the city’s housing situation. The plan includes restrictions and regulations on temporary housing arrangements like Airbnb, a city body to resolve landlord-tenant disputes, and a number of rent-control provisions that would make it illegal to raise rents above a certain yearly cap.
Ironically, the measures being contemplated by the capital may simply exacerbate the situation—economists have concluded that there is substantial empirical evidence that rent control regimes contribute to further housing shortages by making it unprofitable for developers to build new housing, further restricting supply where an expansion is most needed. It may help to prevent further gentrification, by making tourist hospitality unprofitable, but it will also squeeze native Mexicans who need housing in the city.
The furor American immigrants have aroused in Mexico City is another demonstration that it is not just the U.S. grappling with the results of increasing globalization in the Western hemisphere. “Pay taxes, learn Spanish, respect my culture,” read one protestor’s sign—demands reflecting a common sentiment that American immigrants refuse to assimilate into Mexican culture and nationhood. Many Mexicans feel like American expatriates are simply taking advantage of the economic disparity between the two countries and have no interest in Mexico itself or in becoming a part of the Mexican people, an argument that will sound familiar to anyone versed in the debates over immigration in the United States, where immigrants waving Mexican flags and speaking Spanish has been a source of tension and criticism.
The irony of Mexicans protesting against American tourists and immigrants in Mexico City as the U.S. attempts to clear its own borders of illegal immigrants, many of whom are from Mexico, was not lost on the Trump administration. “If you are in the United States illegally and wish to join the next protest in Mexico City, use the CBP Home App to facilitate your departure,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on X.