http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/06/08/u-s-baby-boomers-gentrifying-socialist-ecuador-threatening-stability-of-its-welfare-state/
U.S. Baby Boomer Gentrification Wreaks Havoc on City in Socialist Ecuador
The small city of Cuenca, Ecuador is struggling to address a growing wave of American “Baby Boomers” who have decided to retire there to take advantage of a socialist welfare state designed for its locals.
U.S. retirees, a recent city study revealed, are also causing conflict in the city, raising real estate prices, demanding English-language service, and threatening to sue locals accustomed to more “casual” business contracts.
In a report this week, the Miami Herald highlights the blissful existence of upper-class white American migrants who have flocked to Cuenca, attracted by retiree blogs and news sites that emphasize the appeal of its temperate weather and inexpensive healthcare and real estate.
“In Cuenca, a city of about 350,000 people, they’ve found robust public transportation, an extensive museum network, solid healthcare and markets bursting with fresh fruits and produce,” the Herald notes. “It’s a place where their two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath apartment costs less than $400 a month. They’ve found that for about $1,500 a month, they can live a solidly upper-class lifestyle, dining out frequently and traveling.” The newspaper notes that a bus ride for seniors costs $0.12, and medical procedures are orders of magnitude cheaper than they would be at home.
The city commissioned a study on its foreign population in February 2017 that identified the majority of these new Cuencans as “‘baby boomers’ who began retiring in 2010 and… 4 percent of this population, estimated at 78 million, is planning to retire abroad.” North American countries – mostly the U.S. and Canada – make up 93 percent of Cuenca’s foreign population.
Cuenca’s “boomers” are more likely to have been professors before retirement than any other occupations, with “executives” coming in second place. The study delicately notes that many of these individuals “are not interested in being part of a new culture, and are more interested in that the city and its people respond to their needs and demands.”
Paramount among the city’s concerns is that many Americans are demanding Cuencans speak English and creating English-speaking neighborhoods within the city. “There is a large group for which learning a language is outside of their interests and, faced with the frustration of not being able to communicate, express annoyance with Cuencans who do not tend to their demands in English,” the study reads, adding that the city has invested in Spanish and idiomatic dictionaries for the new residents, but this has not solved the problem.
Boomers are also annoyed by “the ‘slowness’ of service” in Ecuador compared to the United States, and the common use of verbal or informal contracts. “Cases have been reported in which retired foreigners suggest a lawsuit against those who have not completed a previously agreed upon work,” the report notes.
In addition to cultural tensions, the study notes that 65 percent of the native Cuencan population is under 35, and many are frustrated that they must pay taxes and invest in the welfare state that foreign retiree migrants are now abusing.
The Herald story, which cites some findings from this study, is the latest trend piece on Cuenca in a crowded genre. The Cuenca study followed years of anecdotal journalism noting the idiosyncratic Boomer wave moving south. The city of Cuenca, in a study published in February, found its foreign population grew 173 percent between 2001 and 2010. By 2012, outlets like the BBC were calling it an American “promised land.” That article traced the Cuenca viral sensation among retiree migrants back to an article on the website Gringo Tree, which in turn noted that the wave of thousands of American ex-pats hitting the city followed the 2009 publication of an article in International Living that described the city as “the top destination in the world to retire.”
At the time, Cuenca’s International Relations Director Dani Jara appeared pleased by the new influx of high spenders to her city. She told BBC, “Tourism we promote, one creates strategies for the medium and long term. But in the case of a migratory phenomenon, that is due to the city conditions. Cuenca has grown throughout its history into a city where one can live well.”
By 2013, Cuenca Mayor Paul Granda was describing the mass migrant wave as “a little complicated for us.” “The city is less accessible to Ecuadorians” due to the wealthy Americans flocking there, he argued to ABC News, noting that average prices of basic goods had increased 40 to 50 percent.
Two years later, Ecuador’s Secretary of the Vice Ministry of Human Mobility was warning of wealthy American “ghettos” threatening the character of Cuenca. “There should not be ghettos forming in zones where Americans live, versus those who live permanently in these places,” Humberto Cordero said. The migration, he urged, “must be regulated.”
Cuenca’s American invasion was not regulated, in part because local businesses and real estate owners preferred selling and renting to Americans. “They care for their spaces and pay what is fair,” Cuencan homeowner María Torres told Ecuador’s El Comercio newspaper last year. She noted that their comfortable economic status and lack of children made for quiet, reliable tenants.
The government has nonetheless continued to express concern over American migrants overrunning the city. New International Relations Director Ana Paulina Crespo told the Herald in this week’s column that “Cuencanos are feeling like strangers in their own city” and emphasized, “Cuenca never wanted to attract retirees… we’re facing lots of problems over how to deal with a phenomenon that we aren’t responsible for creating.”
For those who may wish to peruse the comments section to the Breitbart article, here is the link again:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/06/08/u-s-baby-boomers-gentrifying-socialist-ecuador-threatening-stability-of-its-welfare-state/
BELOW IS MY RESPONSE:
I would like to discuss a few corrections to the above article
and to some of the comments in the comment section:
Cuenca
is a city of approximately 310,000 people, and its canton (county) population
is a little over 600,000 people. There are approximately 7,000 to 9,000 expats
(Almost exclusively Americans, Canadians, and Europeans; who hold dual
citizenship or who are permanent legal residents.) However, the actual expat
population in Cuenca at any given time is approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people.
Some expats procured legal residency with the intent of using it on a permanent
basis if the political climate from their perspective continued or continues to
deteriorate in the United States, but otherwise, continue to live in the U.S.
Some expats intended to remain in Cuenca the rest of their lives, but
attenuating circumstances changed those plans Some expats spend a few years of
their retirement here, and then as they approach their seventies return home to
their families. Most of the expats who have permanent residency without
actually living in Cuenca the year-round are snow birds, who may live in Cuenca
from two to six months during the North American winter months. Therefore, in
the city proper where the vast majority of expats live, their total percentage
of the population is approximately 1.5 per cent. Hardly, earth-shattering.
I
have found it ironic that at times I have be asked by Cuencanos (people born
and raised in Cuenca) and particularly by taxi drivers, if I think there are
too many Gringos coming to Cuenca. I am never quite sure why they would ask me
as a Gringo such a question, but I have always appreciated their openness to
raising the question, and their curiosity about my point of view. (First, let me state
that in Ecuador, the term Gringo is not used as a pejorative term; and in fact,
we expats adopted it for ourselves, and use it as a badge of honor. One of our
leading on-line publications is called the "Gringo Post", and we use
to have weekly social Gringo Nights in the city, when there was an influx of
Gringos, who needed to learn the ropes and acclimate to their new home.)
I
always reassure Cuecanos when they ask about the growth of Gringos in Cuenca
that many of the Gringos they see in El Centro are often tourists who bring
money into the economy, and while many check out Cuenca as a place to retire
most will never move here. Quite frankly, while there are expats who would love
to see Cuenca become another North American city; many of us are contented with
the current level of expat population, and do not by any means want to live in
a majority expat population. We came to Cuenca, because we wanted to experience
and enjoy a Latin culture.
Obviously,
in any society, outsiders to a culture will be viewed as outsiders. Some
outsiders may be accepted, more outsiders to a society may be tolerated, too
many outsiders to a society will be seen as a threat. The threat is especially
seen when outsiders are not willing to assimilate to their new culture, but
remain aloof or actually want to change the native culture into their own image
and likeness, which is happening today with much of Islam all over Western
Europe, and with the deliberate initiation and encouragement of the global
elites.
While
some Cuecanos are concerned about an influx of foreigners taking over their
culture. The numbers have stabilized, and there has not been any genuine net
gain in expat population since 2014. People from outside Ecuador continue to
arrive; while other continue to leave after visits of months or of living for
two or three years in Cuenca, and then decide Cuenca was not for them. Unlike
practically every American enclave in various countries throughout the world,
Cuenca is unique in that the low numbers of expats have spread throughout the
city. You will not find any neighborhood in the city that is majority expat.
The article on this count is wrong. There are no rich enclaves of foreigners, who even come close to making up a majority of any neighborhood in Cuenca.
While
some Cuencanos will criticize expats, and their complaints, like many expats who
are not willing to learn the language beyond rudimentary levels, are valid; it
is also understandable that expats who come from societies like the United
States, that are expected to provide language translations to customers in businesses, assume
the same should be provided in Cuenca. Most Ecuadorian businesses who deal with
a significant number of expats; whether it is the restaurant, legal, or banking
industry as three examples, have learned to hire some English speaking
employees in Cuenca. The number of young people in Cuenca in recent years have
observed that it improves their job prospects by learning English. English
language schools strive all over the city, and English is taught extensively
with varying degrees of effectiveness throughout many of the schools.
The
greatest economic and social impact on the city comes from Ecuadorians who
legally or illegally were living in the U.S. and have returned to Ecuador
voluntarily or involuntarily. Many have money in their pockets, and have been
able to return to Cuenca living a middle class life-style by Ecuadorian and
sometimes by American standards. They also bring with them cultural
accouterments from North America, which begin to impinge favorably or
unfavorably upon the local culture dependent upon one's perspective. These
returning Ecuadorians far outnumber the expat counterparts, and therefore, have
a much larger impact on price increases and upon cultural changes than the
small expat community primarily composed of retired expats .
While
it may be true according to the Miami Herald article that the single largest
group of expats in Cuenca are academics, they would still make up a small
plurality of the total expat population. It is just totally false, when some of
the commentators extrapolate from the comment in the Herald article that Cuenca
is some kind of retirement haven for Left-wing academics. The expat population
is tremendously diverse; politically and economically and culturally.
There
are expats here who once were very affluent in the U..S. and were greatly hurt
financially by the economic crash of 2008. Many of them were entrepreneurs,
stock and commodity investors, or contractors in the construction industry.
Others were managers and workers who earned upper-middle class salaries, but
were forced into early retirement by the economic retraction. Some of them are
still affluent by American standards, but can find they can live an even richer
life-style here as they once knew in the U.S. before the economic downturn or
before retirement adjusted incomes.
In
the last three years, Cuenca has experienced an increase in economic refugees
from the United States. These are people who basically have little more on
which to live than their social security checks. Many refugees find tight
budgets in Ecuador, but easier than trying to survive financially in the U.S.
However, some of these folks often do not want to be here, and needless to say, some of
them make no effort to hide their animosity, and those who behave in this
fashion are resented by both Ecuadorians and expats alike.
Another
great myth in this article is the idea that expats can come to Ecuador and live
an upper-middle class or lower upper class life-style on $1,500 a month and
even travel as well. Absolutely, totally false, especially if we are speaking
of a couple. People can find some very middle class apartments on that
income, but will be pinching pennies on an $18,000 annual income. A $30,000
income would be more in line for two to live an American-styled, upper middle class
existence for two. Expect the need for an even larger income, if you think that
you are going to be a traveling globe trotter while living in Cuenca.
While
it is true that Ecuador has a socialist government, so does the United States.
The U.S. currently is less socialist only in the sense that unlike Ecuador, it
does not have universal health care coverage provided by the government. Even
Ecuador's newly inaugurated president, although the leader of the socialist
party, sounds like President Trump when talking about less regulations on
businesses and lower taxes on businesses to jump-start the economy. Otherwise,
the United States in its mixed capitalist economy provides all the social
welfare benefits even more extensively than the Ecuadorian economy could
afford; not only to the low income, but to the corporate welfare rolls as well.
There
are Ecuadorians who understand why President Trump wants to build a wall or at
least limit immigration, and especially end illegal immigration. As some of
them have mentioned to me, "You would not be allowed to remain in Ecuador
if you did not meet our immigration requirements, so why should Ecuadorians
expect it to be any different?" Even now, many middle class and
professional Venezuelans have been entering Ecuador to escape from the mess the
communists have produced in that country. They are competing with Ecuadorians
in a tight job market since the collapse of oil prices; and the government is
and has been taking action against illegal immigration particularly from Cuba,
Columbia, Peru, and now Venezuela.
Of
course, many low-income Ecuadorians don't care about the niceties of law, and
if they have an opportunity to enter the U.S. to improve their lives for
themselves and their family back home; I can't blame them for taking advantage
of a country that allows its laws to be flaunted and not enforced. That is up
to the American people to elect officials to enforce their laws, and to limit
immigration in ways that benefit the people of the United States. Every culture
should have a right to protect itself, and every country should have a right to
protect its sovereignty. Only White Anglo societies and White European
societies are being denied that right in today's world. However, they can only
be denied that right, if they themselves continue to elect Cultural Marxists
and globalists to governed over them.
One
of the biggest contentions in Ecuador has been over the number of expats who
came to Ecuador to take advantage of the medical system, particularly when they
were not yet old enough to be eligible for Medicare, and then returned to the U.S. after exploiting the medical system in Ecuador. Many expats had serious
illnesses, and literally contributed to the bankruptcy of hospital-sponsored
insurance programs, and private insurance plans. Many of these programs were
somewhat flimsy to begin with, did not have actuarials hired to determine price
effectiveness; and it appears that private health insurance companies emerging
from this mess of a few years ago may be learning from their mistakes.
The
fact that many medical tourists come to Cuenca to take advantage of the
excellent medical and dental programs has been a boon to doctors and those in
the medical professions. These same doctors know they can not charge more to
the native population, so it is not like it is causing medical expenses to rise
in any appreciable way for the general population.
It
was the Ecuadorian government's decision to allow expats to be eligible for the
Ecuadorian medical insurance program, and expanded the program which originally
covered workers to include medical coverage for spouses, children, and
preexisting conditions. While all fine and good from a humanitarian point of
view, it had added by the end of 2016 a two and a half billion dollar deficit
to the insurance program, that many Ecuadorians believe may be jeopardizing
their entire social security and pension system.
Recently,
the government now requires that expats will need to pay 17.5 percent of their
income toward their premium costs, where before they were paying roughly eighty
dollars per month for two people. It is only fair, and most expats agree in
light of the kind of incomes expats make in comparison to native Ecuadorians.
However, such a problem and its concomitant resentment by Ecuadorians was
caused by government policy, and not by the expats. Most expats will drop the
program, and it appears only about 400 or 500 expats were signed up for the
program. The reduction of expats from the program or the higher premiums paid
will not be nearly enough to turn the huge deficit in the medical insurance
program around, but it is a move in the right direction.
New
International Relations Director Ana Paulina Crespo told the Herald in this
week’s column that “Cuencanos are feeling like strangers in their own city” and
emphasized, “Cuenca never wanted to attract retirees… we’re facing lots of
problems over how to deal with a phenomenon that we aren’t responsible for
creating.”
Wow,
what a statement in a community where expats contribute so much in terms of
income, hiring new employees because of the money they spend, restaurants that
could not survive without expat trade, hours of expat charity and volunteer
service and financial contributions, not to mention an entire expat-Ecuadorian
facilitator industry that would dry up overnight, as would the tourist industry
and its concomitant services as well. Cuenca can survive without the expats; but there would be some economic injury, and probably some reduction in a wider
world perspective culturally as the Cuencanos would become somewhat more
isolated, although today the Internet and television mitigates some of that
cultural isolation.
I
could understand Ana Paulina Crespo's attitude, if there were huge influxes of
expats moving into Cuenca, and I could understand her concern if the growth of expats
were to dramatically increase again. Nonetheless, only 1.5 percent of the
population of Cuenca is expat with no appreciable growth in recent years. When one considers with what the Cultural Marxists and the Globalist corporations and
elites are subjecting North America and Europe to in illegal and refugee
immigration growth, it makes her comments hysterically laughable. Under the
current circumstances, Crespo's remarks are beyond the pale. I have found the
Ecuadorians to be generally very friendly, accepting, and helpful. It's ashamed
political appointees like her choose to exploit the differences, and play off the resentments of a handful of the local population.
However, there will always be politicians who will scapegoat a group for
that politician's political advantage, when that claim is unfair. There will
always be nativists who will fear the unknown and the different. There will
always be people who will resent out of envy and jealousy those who have more
than they do. It's human nature. There will always be news media who attempt to
exploit differences and engender conflict, as the Western media has done since
Obama was elected president and continue to do so today. In the end, it will all play out, however it is to
play out, like everything else in life and throughout history.
