TY - JOUR
T1 - Growing old in exile – a longitudinal study of migrant women from Turkey
AU - Liversage, Anika
AU - Mizrahi Mirdal, Gretty
PY - 2017/1/25
Y1 - 2017/1/25
N2 - Some studies on migrants and ageing focus on the question of return; others focus on how migrants, who grow old in their countries of destination, ‘age in place’, including whether they turn to their children or to public host country provisions for care and support. However, the issues of return and of ageing in place may both hold significance in individual migrants’ lives. To investigate the changing expectations of old age throughout the life course, this paper draws on longitudinal interviews with migrant women from Turkey who live in Denmark. We focus on the function of proximity to children. Using two women who were interviewed three times over three decades as case studies, the analysis shows that in the middle of life, the women share expectations of returning to Turkey, but these plans are perpetually postponed. As the women age, they must face their inability to leave their children behind–and hence that they will never return. This realisation brings to the fore the issue of where these women are to turn for care and support–a potentially difficult choice from which the former expectations of return had shielded them.
AB - Some studies on migrants and ageing focus on the question of return; others focus on how migrants, who grow old in their countries of destination, ‘age in place’, including whether they turn to their children or to public host country provisions for care and support. However, the issues of return and of ageing in place may both hold significance in individual migrants’ lives. To investigate the changing expectations of old age throughout the life course, this paper draws on longitudinal interviews with migrant women from Turkey who live in Denmark. We focus on the function of proximity to children. Using two women who were interviewed three times over three decades as case studies, the analysis shows that in the middle of life, the women share expectations of returning to Turkey, but these plans are perpetually postponed. As the women age, they must face their inability to leave their children behind–and hence that they will never return. This realisation brings to the fore the issue of where these women are to turn for care and support–a potentially difficult choice from which the former expectations of return had shielded them.
KW - longitudinal interviews
KW - older migrants
KW - Return migration
KW - Turkish migrants
U2 - 10.1080/1369183X.2016.1238910
DO - 10.1080/1369183X.2016.1238910
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84990222510
SN - 1369-183X
VL - 43
SP - 287
EP - 302
JO - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
JF - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
IS - 2
ER -