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

VL - 43

SP - 287

EP - 302

JO - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

JF - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

SN - 1369-183X

IS - 2

ER -