Mexico is going to need to change their labor laws if they want a big piece of this pie.
I’ve had a nearshore team in Mexico for four years the people are great for all the reasons mentioned.
The gap, however is costs. We’re used to “at-will” employment in the states are used to a “Hire slow, fire fast” paradigm. In MX the cost to fire a full time employee is 3 months severance (regardless of seniority) plus 20 days for each year worked (labor calculations in MX are done in day rates), plus all accrued vacation and pro-rated Christmas bonus (a requisite MX bonus). Firing someone with 3-4 years tenure can cost 3-6 months of salary.
The labor “board” in MX is not a neutral arbiter. They represent the employee in the case of a labor claim.
You can skirt this a bit with contractors but that only works for a limited time (contract to hire is common and advisable)
Mexico has been a pain point for me. I’ve done everything aboveboard and legally but after having been down the rabbit hole a bit I feel there’s a lot of gray between what’s legal and what’s done in practice and I didn’t have anyone who could help me navigate those waters.
There’s big shops opening up in Guadalajara and some other areas and larger companies can weather these issues better then I could with a small team of about 10. But if you’re a smaller startup or services provider I’d be very wary of getting in too deep in Mexico at this point.
The one big loophole is to basically hire an agency in MX and pay a premium for devs but don’t take on any of the labor risk.