Here was my response....

No offense taken at all. It is a good question. So we are not looking for backpackers, at least in the schools I am working with. They are legit, accredited schools, that are seeking professional teachers with degrees and certifications and/or 2 years of experience.

Having said that, we do get younger teachers who may not be as competitive in southeast asia or the middle east, who want to break into the IB curriculum, which is what schools pay me to find and despite all the rigamarole about teacher shortages we do very well getting these candidates.

We also do our bit to get qualified, certified older teachers hired. I have assisted teachers in their 70s to get hired in some of our schools. Some of our schools cannot take older candidates due to insurance reasons or sometimes other reasons but they won't tell me because we have a non-discrimination clause in our contracts.

The other types of educators that we get are middle aged (30s and 40) teachers who have made their money elsewhere and are coming to latin america for the lifestyle, because it is one of the places you can afford to have a nice house and a maid and gardener, even on the somewhat lower salaries. The other reason this level of teachers come is to break into Administration. Due to it being a less competitive region, the same story as above works for getting into administration. To be honest, which I always try to be, the Admin pay in Latin American can be as competitive as the rest of the world. Not always, but many times, depending on the school and the location.

So your point about underpaid teachers ending up destitute can be a realistic situation but Latin America is a worker friendly region and some people can get on a pension plan once they get permanent residence, which is not all that hard in many Latin American countries such as Mexico and Colombia. They have to pay into it but they will get it back. And as I mentioned above, the lifestyle is unbeatable! Some of the best beaches, natural areas, mountains in the world. The last two places I have lived (coast of colombia and costa rica) are some of the most biologically diverse locations on the planet.