CIGEV, area gerontology: Research on Lifespan, Multidirectionality and Plasticity – Director: Matthias Kliegel

Transnational Ageing among Older Migrants and Natives

A Strategy to Overcome Vulnerability

Goal

The aim of the project is to systematically compare persons aged 65 and over who have experienced migration with those who have not experienced migration, and identify the similarities and differences between these groups as well as the source of differences. Furthermore, it is aimed to underpin the capacity and strategies of resilience among older populations. The project thus wants to understand how older persons, including migrants, develop transnational practices to overcome vulnerability.

Methodology

This project employs a mixed-methods approach.

There will be donesecondary data analyses of three surveys: VLV (the largest survey on old-age vulnerability in Switzerland), Passage to Retirement of Immigrants from France, and Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam from The Netherlands.

Further, there is scheduled a new quantitative data collection in Switzerland and Italy.

Simultaneously, there will be conducted ethnographic research consisting of: in-depth interviews, an overview of local institutions involved in transnationalism and interviews with their representatives, and an analysis of announcements in journals and magazines.