Introduction

Joseph and Margaret, both aged 63, are an American married couple of 34 years. They retired early and have lived in Mexico for the past four years. Margaret worked as a high-school teacher and principal; Joseph worked in a managerial capacity for a non-profit organisation. Both had grown up on the West Coast and by the ocean, and had hoped to stay there. However, despite their professional backgrounds and middle-class status, by their late 50s, they began to see that the cost of living in their city ruled out a decent life there. They still had a mortgage to pay on their house, and they described themselves as living paycheque to paycheque. Moving to Mexico allowed them to live debt-free and still be by the ocean, as well as close enough to family (their son, siblings and a mother) that they could visit.

Part of what they enjoyed about Mexico was the way that they were treated by the local populations. As Joseph said:

He contrasted what he perceived as respect for older people in Mexico with what he saw in the US. Reflecting an awareness of inequalities, Margaret expanded on this feeling of inclusion as ‘just people’, juxtaposing this to the feelings of invisibility that older women face in the US: