‘Sometimes you gotta get out of your comfort zone’: retirement migration and active ageing in Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

The article extends notions of ‘active’ and ‘successful’ ageing by exploring the narratives of ageing in the retirement migration of Canadian and American older adults in Cuenca, Ecuador. The article is based on 83 semi-structured qualitative interviews (11 of which are follow-up interviews), most conducted in the first half of the 2010s. I explore how notions of finite time and imaginaries of a fourth age of decline and death inform the migration decisions and imaginaries of Canadian and American retirement migrants. I argue that their desire to seek self-expansive, new experiences through migration and contact with cultural difference dialogues with an increasingly competitive neoliberal culture of ageing, that emphasises success through activity, youthfulness and consumption. While there are certainly other ideals that help inform North American migration to Ecuador, I argue that these particular ideals illustrate how discourses of ‘active ageing’ have been taken up ‘from below’, by ageing North American adults, many of whom identify with the aspirations of policy and corporate discourses of activity and success, but who find themselves ageing into material conditions that preclude them. Migration to a lower-cost country, like Ecuador, helps them to experience these aspirations more positively, but may have uneven effects on lower-income workers and their ability to remain in place in the communities marketed for this type of migration.

New frontiers in international retirement migration

“…Different again is the developing strand of literature on later-life migration as an active-ageing strategy for older women – those who are single, widowed or divorced/separated (Gambold, 2013). Cases of the empowering effect of IRM for single women are also noted by Hayes (2021, this issue) and Sampaio (2018). Lulle and King (2016) and Lulle (2021, this issue) document the experiences of older Latvian women in the United Kingdom (UK) and Nordic countries who achieve self-realisation and economic independence through migrating for work in later life.…”

“…(2016) have researched the ‘over-the-border’ retirement communities in northern Mexico's Baja California, whilst others have documented retirees living in picturesque highland locations further south, such as San Miguel and Lake Chapala (Truly, 2002; Banks, 2004; Dixon et al ., 2006; Sunil et al ., 2007; Rojas et al ., 2014). Research on Ecuador has focused on American older-age residents in the historic city of Cuenca ( see Hayes, 2014, 2018, 2021, this issue; Miles, 2015). Hayes describes this North-to-South migration as ‘geographic arbitrage’ or ‘geoarbitrage’ – an economically driven strategy to pursue fulfilling retirement in low-cost locations.…”

Migration and development: The overlooked roles of older people and ageing

“…This awareness of death and approaching frail state in life, perhaps having also seen the decline and death of contemporaries, can be an important stimulus to initiate migration in later life. In the words of a North American retiree in Cuenca, Ecuador, it is important ‘to get into other cultures’ after having ‘had enough of death and dying for a while’ (quoted in Hayes, 2021: 1228). However, ‘active ageing’ is not always an option due to social differences such as class or health.…”

“…The most sophisticated analysis of the development implications of North–South retirement migration comes from Hayes’ research on North American retirees in the historic city of Cuenca in the Ecuadorian Andes (Hayes, 2014, 2015, 2018a, 2018b, 2021). He introduces the term ‘geographic arbitrage’ (or ‘geoarbitrage’), which consists of relocating day-to-day living expenses to low-cost destinations; put another way, the ‘outsourcing of retirement’ (Hayes, 2014).…”

A Sud c’è sempre il sole. Storie di Pensionati italiani in Tunisia

“…Aldilà della complessità delle cause e dei motivi dei trasferimenti, è possibile rinvenire una serie di cambiamenti strutturali e culturali che rendono possibile un siffatto tipo di mobilità, tra cui l'aumento della longevità, il moltiplicarsi dei voli low cost, lo sviluppo dei social network, che consentono contatti costanti e in tempo reale con familiari e amici ovunque essi si trovino, e soprattutto lo sviluppo della cultura dell'invecchiamento attivo che stimola i giovani-anziani a cercare il benessere fisico, mentale e sociale in questa fase del ciclo di vita, prima del tramonto definitivo (Gilleard, Higgs 2011;Hayes 2021;Sampaio et al 2018;WHO 2002).…”