Abstract
The United States and Mexico are entering a new demographic and social reality unknown in the world before. Although Mexico has a much younger population than the United States, both nations are aging rapidly. In the not too distant future, it is estimated that Mexico’s population will be as old or older than in the United States. In 2010, the median age of the Mexican population was 26; by 2050 it is projected to rise to 42, a year older than that of the United States in which the median age will be 41 (Kochhar, 2014). Although the United States is far richer than Mexico and has a more fully developed old-age welfare state, both nations face daunting challenges in caring for rapidly aging populations while addressing the needs of other segments of the population and other priorities. The inevitable competition for resources raises the possibility that vulnerable elders with few resources or political power may suffer greatly as the old-age safety net becomes frayed.
In the future United States, Latinos will account for a growing fraction of the population at large. In many states, minorities will comprise the majority of the labor force. Although the population 65 and older will remain predominantly non-Hispanic White, Latinos will make up a growing fraction (Sáenz, 2015). The articles in this special volume of the Journal of Aging and Health address some of the major challenges that both the United States and Mexico face as they confront the reality of rapidly aging populations. Although the populations of both nations will inevitably age over the next few decades, the impacts of aging and the economic and political response to it will affect various segments of the population differently. Just as the neoliberal economic reforms of past decades benefitted those who already had substantial resources and often harmed those with less wealth, the inevitable reforms to support programs for the young and the old are likely to have differential effects for groups defined in terms of gender, ethnicity, rural/urban residence, and more.
In the United States, due to their aggregate socioeconomic profile, Latinos are likely to be hit hardest by budget cuts and social program retrenchment. Because of lifelong disadvantages in income and wealth accumulation they will increasingly depend on such support programs, and cuts to such programs could have devastating effects. In Mexico, women, those who have worked many years or their whole lives in the informal sector, rural residents, indigenous populations, the extremely poor, and other vulnerable groups find themselves at elevated risk of poverty, poor health, and inadequate services.
Given the persistently low employment-based pension coverage of adults 60 years and older, local and state governments in Mexico implemented noncontributory pension programs since the year 2005, followed by a universal noncontributory pension by the federal government for those who receive no other pension in 2015. However, many segments of its population continue to live in serious poverty (Angel, Angel, López-Ortega, Gutiérrez Robledo, & Wallace, 2016), continue to work, and rely in the family as their major source of support (Gomes & Montes de Oca, 2004).
This heterogeneity in the populations that depend on state programs and family for basic material support and medical care calls for country- and state-specific analyses of the communities in which different groups age. Communities, neighborhoods, and larger geographic areas define the places in which individuals live their lives. The objective of the articles presented in this special volume is to understand how aspects of place—including the physical, social, and economic environments—give rise to disparities in the health in later life of Latinos in the United States and Mexico’s population.
This special issue includes articles presented as part of the eighth installment of the Conference Series on Aging in the Americas (CAA), which was entitled “Contextualizing Health and Aging on Both Sides of the U.S./Mexico Border,” held at The University of Texas at San Antonio on September 14-16, 2016. Each iteration of the CAA presents the most contemporary research on place and health in aging, as well as comparative research focused on issues central to the topic of health and aging in the United States and Mexico. The conference series includes research from many nations based on the latest quantitative and qualitative data. A core objective of the conference series is to put younger scholars in contact with their senior colleagues to foster collaboration.
The papers presented at the 2016 International Conference on Aging in the Americas (ICAA) addressed issues related to how “place,” or the physical and social environment in which one ages, affects morbidity, mortality, and well-being more broadly. Today, an expanding body of literature based on Geographic Information System (GIS) research, social indicator modeling, quantitative multilevel modeling, mixed methods studies, and segmented assimilation studies contribute to our understanding of variations in the social incorporation, health, and well-being of residents of Latino communities (Cummins, Curtis, Diez-Roux, & Macintyre, 2007; Eschbach, Ostir, Patel, Markides, & Goodwin, 2004; Portes, Fernández-Kelly, & Haller, 2005; Vega, Ang, Rodriguez, & Finch, 2011). This research is supplemented by studies on social capital and cohesion, urban, suburban, and rural housing and resettlement patterns, residential segregation, housing adequacy, and enclave development (Durst, 2015; Inagami, Cohen, & Finch, 2007; Ward, 2015). The articles in this special issue are informed by this growing body of research.
For our purposes, the term place connotes a community or neighborhood ecology in which people are born and live their lives. Place is a nexus in which political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental processes affect the daily lives of individuals and communities. The articles in this special issue examine the characteristics of place, variously defined, that protect health or increase the burden of disease among aging Mexicans and Latinos in the United States.
The articles in this volume address issues related to immigration processes, family and household structure and dynamics, and macro- and micro-economic changes on the quality of community life. Two articles pay close attention to the new realities of Latino communities and how these novel phenomena affect living arrangements and residential patterns. Other articles identify structural factors and social processes that contribute to the health and well-being of aging Latinos who experience persistent economic inequality and concentrated poverty as the result of structural disadvantage. These articles contribute to our understanding of how social processes associated with place, including social and behavioral adaptations, may be employed to revitalize vulnerable communities to optimize healthful aging.
The articles offer careful reflections on the political economy of aging policy designed to support the health and long-term care of the retirement-age populations of the United States and Mexico. As the United States becomes more ethnically diverse and older, public officials are acutely aware of the potential social and political consequences that these dramatic changes in demographic and cultural reality could bring about. For both the United States and Mexico, economic downturns could pose major problems for old-age income support and health programs. Even in the absence of economic crises, the inevitable fiscal austerity that slow economic growth brings present both nations with serious challenges. The articles in this special volume represent an important contribution to a better understanding of those challenges and their possible solutions. These and other important issues will inform future installments of the conference series that will be held at the Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on September 20-22, 2017, and at the University of Arizona at Tucson in September 2018.
Nine articles appear in the special issue:
