No abstract

This paper examines several aspects of the social situation of the older immigrant population in Switzerland. It reviews their demographic history and characteristics and provides profiles of their health and well being, their material standard of life and access to social security and related benefits. It reports selected findings from an original survey of older Italian and Spanish citizens who are resident in the country, which show relatively high rates of disadvantage and poverty. The determination of a large proportion of the immigrant population to remain in Switzerland after they have ceased work demonstrates that the minorities who entered the country as labour migrants will become a permanent element of the Swiss population and its society. Neither the politicians nor the general public in Switzerland have yet accepted the reality of this new diversity. Given the continuation and indeed growth of international labour migration, the paper concludes by discussing the social policy and attitudinal options that face the governments and the population of Switzerland and many other European countries.

This paper focuses on older Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese migrants who spent their working lives in Switzerland and explores their different forms of geographical mobility between Switzerland and their home countries. Although drawing inspiration from the transnationalism literature and the new mobilities paradigm, we do not neglect a more structural perspective that stresses the constraints endured by older migrants when they try to build mobile lives. We approach the issue of transnational mobility using mainly quantitative data from the survey Vivre-LebenVivere, which focuses on the living conditions and health of individuals aged 65 years and above currently living in Switzerland. Within this survey, an oversample of approximately 300 older immigrants of Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese origin aged between 65 and 79 years was conducted in Geneva and Basel. The quantitative data are complemented by material from interviews with three Spanish families living in Geneva. Our data show that to 'settle in Switzerland' or to return home does not imply that older immigrants' transnational mobility ceases. To some extent, it could be argued that they never really 'settled' and transnational mobility is a way of life that is more adapted to the duality of resources and references that they have built up during their adult life. Their geographical mobility can take different forms and is adapted to legal constraints, to family configurations, and to individual situations.

Most social psychological research on anti-immigration prejudice has examined the point of view of the national ingroup-generally defined as the citizens of the country under consideration-toward immigrant outgroups. Threat perceptions related to immigration as well as national identification have been shown to underlie negative attitudes. Whether these two factors also explain attitudes among individuals sharing characteristics with the immigrants remains largely unstudied. To fill this gap, the present research examines perceived threat, national identification, and different facets of anti-immigration prejudice among Swiss residents with and without an immigrant background. Results of a path model conducted on data from the International Social Survey Programme 2013 (N = 1,198) showed that, as expected, natives reported higher levels of prejudice than both citizens of foreign descent and immigrants. While group differences in prejudice were in part explained by differences in threat perceptions, the role of national identification was more nuanced. Altogether, these findings suggest that social psychological research should go beyond simplistic "national ingroup vs. immigrant outgroup" conceptualisations when examining anti-immigration prejudice.

No abstract