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I'm one of the biggest cheerleaders you'll ever find for Tijuana, the poorer-man's San Francisco, and I was greatly cheered to read this article in the Las Vegas Review Journal last week.
Thousands of deported Mexicans are finding refuge in call centers in Tijuana and other border cities. In perfect English - some hardly speak Spanish - they converse with American consumers who buy gadgets, have questions about warranties or complain about overdue deliveries, with an average weekly pay of $300 and a starting pay of $150, more than 2X what they would make on a graveyard shift at one of the city's assembly plants.
By the end of the year, Mexico's out-sourced call centers will have more than 85,000 workstations, which may be staffed 2-3 shifts a day, while there are nearly 490,000 in India, and 250,000 in the Philippines. Mexico will surpass 110,000 workstations in 2020, fueled partly by a large pool of bilingual workers and proximity to the U.S.
Baja California state, which includes Tijuana, has about 35 call centers that employ 10,000 people, 40% are deportees.
Firstkontact Center, where about 200 of nearly 500 employees were deported, opened a 2nd building this year in an industrial area to more than double its capacity. More than 100 people in a warehouse-like room, sell transmissions and brakes for U.S. Auto Parts. Another call center is located in one of Tijuana's tallest building.
Now isn't this cheerful news!!! Close down some of those workstations in India (where I can barely comprehend their English) and move it closer to home!
And there's Medical Tourism, another way to stimulate the economy. A month ago I made use of their Angeles Hospital in the Rio Zona district, a medical tourism hospital they built there in 2004.
So here comes the Tijuana cheerleader: Go! Go! Go!
Baja California (norte) has come a long way in just a couple years. I was just reading the other on how it is now (Tijuana) the number 1 producer in bio-medical manufacturing in North America (surpassing Minneapolis). Mexico is producing a lot of engineers, and cities like Tijuana are able to work in symbiosis with cities like San Diego. San Diego is big on the biomedical R&D, Tijuana provides a space for those companies to make their research a physical reality. ( Plastics Today ) (Tijuana Is Showcased as Mexico´s Medical Device Hub )
If the city can address its poverty (which is very difficult being that it is a city, like Los Angeles and Mexico City, that attracts a lot of migrants, both domestic and international) while continuing to grow its middle class, it will quickly be among one of the best places to live in Latin America for people who want to make things happen.
What would really help is a lot more capacity to cross the border both ways. Every time it gets suggested there is the usual cries out about illegals and whatnot. So border enforcement gets their billions, but those who want to cross in an orderly manner get pennies. Since most of those making noise have no intention of ever standing in a two hour border line or will never spend 3 hours waiting to enter at LAX or JFK, the lack of agents at the border crossings is not a problem. The current construction to expand the border crossing merely just puts a dent in the massive lack of capacity,
If we could actually get government to do something about this theres no telling how much benefit border towns on both sides could flourish and these kinds of programs would no longer be just novel ideas, but they would indeed be important economic drivers.
What would really help is a lot more capacity to cross the border both ways. Every time it gets suggested there is the usual cries out about illegals and whatnot. So border enforcement gets their billions, but those who want to cross in an orderly manner get pennies. Since most of those making noise have no intention of ever standing in a two hour border line or will never spend 3 hours waiting to enter at LAX or JFK, the lack of agents at the border crossings is not a problem. The current construction to expand the border crossing merely just puts a dent in the massive lack of capacity,
If we could actually get government to do something about this theres no telling how much benefit border towns on both sides could flourish and these kinds of programs would no longer be just novel ideas, but they would indeed be important economic drivers.
This is all true.
One of the deciding factors of me moving back to San Diego was the border wait hassle, even with a Sentri pass. It was just too inconvenient, impractical, restricted and isolated from the things that I do to continue living there. That includes working and everything that I did before I moved, not to mention landlord and neighbor problems.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,206,701 times
Reputation: 57822
If someone had asked me for a cost-effective plan for training Mexican citizens in speaking English for doing outsourced call center jobs in Mexico, I couldn't thought of a better plan.
Baja California (norte) has come a long way in just a couple years. I was just reading the other on how it is now (Tijuana) the number 1 producer in bio-medical manufacturing in North America (surpassing Minneapolis). Mexico is producing a lot of engineers, and cities like Tijuana are able to work in symbiosis with cities like San Diego. San Diego is big on the biomedical R&D, Tijuana provides a space for those companies to make their research a physical reality. ( Plastics Today ) (Tijuana Is Showcased as Mexico´s Medical Device Hub )
If the city can address its poverty (which is very difficult being that it is a city, like Los Angeles and Mexico City, that attracts a lot of migrants, both domestic and international) while continuing to grow its middle class, it will quickly be among one of the best places to live in Latin America for people who want to make things happen.
More encouraging, exciting news!
I oftentimes tell my fellow Las Vegans: Thank God that Tijuana turned away from legalized gambling in 1939? as Tijuana had all the potential to become the Las Vegas, or Atlantic City of the West Coast, with a more hospitable climate! Imagine what Tijuana would be today if they had become a big gambling mecca with 4-5,000 room casino resorts, perhaps along the coast in Rosarito!
But all this new job creation is far better and healthier for the city! Let's keep it going!
Location: San Diego CA>Tijuana, BC>San Antonio, TX
6,507 posts, read 7,538,629 times
Reputation: 6878
Telvista is one of the big players in the contact center game in Tijuana among other cities in the US and Mexico. In Tijuana it is a great place for university students and Mexican/American deportees to find employment.
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