Critical Perspectives on the Migration of Retired Expatriates in Mexico from the Perspectives of Illich and Stiegler

Abstract

The migration of retirees from the Global North to Baja California and Mazatlán has intensified in recent decades, generating social, economic, and cultural impacts on host communities. From a critical perspective, this study analyzes how digital technologies mediate migratory experience, facilitating the creation of cultural bubbles (enclaves) that reinforce disconnection from the local population. Using the theoretical frameworks of Bernard Stiegler and Ivan Illich, the study examines the processes of exteriorized memory, proletarianization of attention, and accumulation by dispossession in these retirement settlements. It also problematizes the distinction between expatriates and migrants, highlighting how dynamics of gentrification, real estate speculation, and transnational consumption affect sustainability and coexistence in destination areas. The study is based on a qualitative ethnographic methodology, combining participant observation with semi-structured interviews conducted between 2021 and 2025, primarily in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, with foreign retirees over the age of 65 who had lived in Mexico for more than a year. The findings suggest that retiree migration, far from being a neutral phenomenon, is part of a territorial reconfiguration that deepens structural inequalities and reshapes local space to serve foreign interests.