Social Support for Aging and Eldercare in the Context of Migration

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

Globally there has been a significant increase in the numbers of aging people. At the same time migration, especially of younger people, has altered family-based structures for eldercare. This collaborative research comparatively examines how individuals, families, and communities adapt their strategies to support culturally appropriate elder care in response to demographic and socioeconomic changes. The research generates new and generalizable scientific insights on the impacts of community-based and institutional efforts that address the challenges associated with aging in an age of migration. The findings from the research inform policy and programs for migrant eldercare, especially for those who enter their host countries through family-based immigration policies. To measure the impacts of socioeconomic and demographic changes of migration on culturally appropriate eldercare, the research will use quantitative surveys alongside the ethnographic methods of participant observation and in-depth interviewing. The researchers will generate both aggregate statistical data and deep personal perspectives on the shifting dynamics of elder care and support. Specifically the research investigates the social and cultural challenges elders face, the role that institutions, families and communities play in eldercare, how families and communities are adapting to the dispersal of younger people who traditionally provided support for the elderly, how a combination of indigenous and outside institutions is arising to fill gaps in care, and how elderly migrants and their family members are adapting their cultural notions of care in new socioeconomic contexts. The findings from this research advance cross-cultural understandings in social gerontology and the anthropology of aging and migration. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.