Many Latin American countries depend on remittances from migrant workers who leave their home countries for financial opportunities across the globe. But according to a study done by the Inter-American Development Bank, in this global recession a lot of migrants aren’t able to send as much money as they used to. Joining The Takeaway is Efrain Jimenez, a 34-year-old auto mechanic in the San Fernando Valley in California who moved to the U.S. from Mexico. He’s been able to send his parents as much money as he used to because of the slowdown in business at his shop. Also joining the show is Robert Meins a remittance specialist for the Inter-American Development Bank who does research on the amount of remittances sent across the globe and its economic effect.

How has the notion of the American dream changed for the new generation of Mexicans in the United States? The Takeaway talks to Gustavo Arellano, who writes the syndicated "Ask A Mexican" column, and is a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times opinion page.

What is your American dream? Join the discussion on The Takeaway's New American Dream section.

In Mexico, the national army and federal police have gone to war with drug cartels. It's a conflict on a dizzying number of fronts that doesn't lend itself to easy explanation. Over the past week on The Takeaway, we turned to people along the U.S.-Mexican border to help us all understand not just what's happening, but how and why.

In December, a few stories out of West Texas caught my eye. They said that right across the border from El Paso, in the city of Ciudad Juarez, the private armies of Mexican drug cartel leaders were terrorizing Juarez residents. After talking to El Paso Times reporter Diana Washington Valdez, it became clear that the Mexican drug war is no longer entirely confined to Mexico. When El Paso city councilman Beto O'Rourke told me that there's hardly a person in El Paso that doesn't have relatives or friends or colleagues affected by the often gruesome violence, I became intrigued and surprised I hadn't seen more about it.

But of course, that was only the beginning of the story, and there's much more here than a campaign of brutality by the cartels.

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All week, we’ve been taking a look at the U.S.-Mexico border, where violence has soared as Mexico’s army battles powerful drug cartels. Today, we turn to a place you may not have heard of: Brownsville, Texas. It’s a small city where most people have family right across the border in Matamoros, Mexico. And they have learned that what happens in Texas can’t be separated from what happens in Mexico. The Takeaway talks to Brownsville judge Carlos Cascos and Brownsville Herald crime reporter Ildefonso Ortiz for their take on life on the border.

For more stories from the border, click here.

This this week, we’ve been taking a look at Mexico’s drug war and the ripple effect being felt throughout the Southwest United States. Perhaps nowhere has this been felt more keenly than in Arizona where drug-related kidnappings have soared over the past year. Adding to the turmoil is the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexican gangs. As jury selection continues in the trial of a Phoenix gun-dealer who allegedly sold hundreds of weapons to Mexican cartel members, the debate rages about how to keep American guns out of Mexico. We are joined by someone who is in the front-line of trying to make that happen, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

Here is Terry Goddard on CNN discussing gun smuggling:

A rising tide of violence stemming from Mexico’s drug war has sent thousands of Mexican nationals fleeing across the border to the United States. Some of them go home, but thousands more say they cannot without fear of reprisal. Understandably, the number of Mexicans seeking asylum in the United States has skyrocketed in the past year. We’re joined by Carlos Spector an immigration attorney in El Paso, Texas, who has been helping people flee the violence.

Here is raw footage of Mexican troops being deployed to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, the country's most dangerous drug city.

In recent weeks, much of northern Mexico has been gripped by anarchic violence as President Felipe Calderon takes on powerful drug cartels. The cartels' tactics are simple: use brute force to get what you want. The problem is—it's working. And increasingly, that violence is spilling across Mexico’s border into U.S. cities like El Paso and Phoenix. The Takeaway is joined by Sam Quinones, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and Tracy Wilkinson, Mexico Bureau Chief for the same paper. Both have been providing coverage for the paper’s series: “Mexico Under Siege.”

For more, follow the series, Mexico Under Siege, in the Los Angeles Times.