Care arrangements for older people in migrant families: A systematic review of the empirical literature

• In Event: Aging and the Life Course Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 4: Family Caregiving

Abstract

Aging migrant populations in Europe and beyond has recently been in the agenda of social researchers, policy makers and practitioners alike. Provision of elderly care for migrant populations requires attention and a tailored approach as these populations’ preferences of care in old age and their needs significantly differs from the majority groups. Moreover, the transnational nature of many migrant families complicates the picture further.
The studies exploring migration and elderly care predominantly focus on migrant care workers. While the literature looking at the arrangement of elderly care in migration context is growing fast, it is still at its early stages. In this paper, we aim to review the empirical studies in this area, present a meta-analysis of these studies particularly in relation to their research questions, methodologies and geographies. By doing so, our objective is to provide an account of our understanding of elderly care in migration context as well as critically assessing the gaps in the field and proposing a future agenda.
Our analytic strategy follows the PRISMA reporting guidelines. We screen the online databases for ‘migration’ and ‘elderly care’ studies and include peer-reviewed social science papers with an empirical element.
Our preliminary results show that the literature on elderly care in migrant families have a strong focus on the needs and experiences of the migrant families and, partly as a result of this focus, the structural and institutional barriers are also scrutinised. The literature shows some advances in mapping transnational nature of the elderly care by exploring elder parents left in the country of origin. That said, we also identify gaps: a lack of comparative evidence exploring elderly care in a comparative fashion, an overlap with certain approaches and their methodological approaches, a lack of direct comparison of migrant families to those in origin contexts.

Authors

• Sait Bayrakdar, University of Warwick

• Ayse Guveli, University of Warwick