Mobile Midwesterners: The Impact of Migration on Aging, Health, and Community

Authors

  • Matthew Dalstrom Rockford College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2013.23

Keywords:

Aging, Winter Texans, health, migration, RV Parks

Abstract

As the population in the US ages, there is increasing need to study aging and its relationship to quality of life, health, and community. Quality of life is closely correlated with belonging to a community. Unfortunately, as seniors age there is a propensity for them to become increasingly isolated as their mobility decreases and their friends and family members die or move away. As a result, some seniors in the Midwest have begun to migrate to RV parks in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (“LRGV”) in south Texas that function as temporary retirement communities for the winter. While there, they reconnect with friends and family members and engage in a variety of social, civic, and exercise related activities. Further, they participate in a variety of health seeking behaviors such as health screenings, trading medications, and using the Mexican health care system. This article explores these practices and discusses how Winter Texans choose the LRGV, how new members become integrated into RV parks, and how life in the parks impacts health and access to health care services. It also highlights the impact that seasonal migration has on community formation, health seeking behaviors, and the diversity of retirement communities.

Downloads

Published

2013-03-01

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.