This article aims to explore how using the internet may facilitate coping with the challenges of immigration in later life, based on the case of older Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel. For that purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 immigrants living in southern Israel. Results indicated that internet usages by the study participants were: (1) Managing health; (2) Nurturing professional interests; (3) Maintaining and extending social networks; (4) Appreciating the past; and (5) Enjoying leisure. Each usage seemed to preserve and even strengthen the participants’ self-worth and improve their quality of life. These findings suggest that older immigrants who use the internet practice, in fact, strategies of successful ageing, which help them to cope not only with the challenges associated with ageing, but also with the tremendous difficulties and losses posed by immigration.
Immigration in later life is an extremely stressful life event. When multigenerational families resettle together, elders turn to their adult children for support, while both generations face challenges of integration. Drawing on the framework of intergenerational solidarity-conflict-ambivalence, this qualitative study explores the relationships between elderly, ex-Soviet immigrants and their adult children in Israel.The findings illuminate the declining personal resources and family status of the elders, as well as their main coping strategies. Both generations try to discover a new balance among the old and new cultural expectations, reciprocity, and use of available, formal, geriatric services.
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