15

The Mexican population explosion during the years 1940-1970 results at present in a very strong growth in numbers of the elderly. However, the social insurance systems are coming close to reaching their limits, because intergenerational solidarities within families – the main traditional component of this support – becomes less and less sustainable within a low fertility and low mortality regime. For its part, the pension system does not ensure sufficient resources for most of its beneficiaries. Given these constraints, successive generations have started for some time an “non-waging” process (transfer from wage-earning towards entrepreneurship) during their working life. This process often depends on resources provided by international emigration, and aims at overcoming the shortcomings of traditional mechanisms of support for the elderly.