Identity, Old(er) Age and Migrancy : A Social Constructionist Len

Abstract

Identity research in relation to ethnicity and migration has tended to focus on younger people whilst identity research in relation to ageing and old(er) age has not focused on migrants. This inadvertent mutual neglect has led to a lack of identity research that examines the identity categories of old(er) age and migrancy together, a lacuna that this dissertation aims to redress. This dissertation departs from a social constructionist understanding of identity as situationally accomplished in the interplay between how one defines oneself (internally) and how others define one (externally). The questions raised by this perspective and addressed in this dissertation are: When (in what situations) and in relation to whom do old(er) age and migrancy (respectively) seem to become meaningful for identification? How do the identity categories of old(er) age and migrancy seem to be negotiated? The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with 24 older migrants (13 men, 11 women) aged between 55 and 79 who have been living in Sweden for 18 to 61 years. Interviewees come from 12 different countries that vary in perceived cultural distance from Sweden. The findings suggest that identifications with old(er) age and migrancy seem to be dynamic and flexible rather than necessarily permanently meaningful, thus gaining meaning in specific situations and in relation to particular Others. External definitions furthermore do not always seem to match with internal ones. Regardless of how old(er) age and migrancy are constructed, they seem to be negotiable. This dissertation thus contributes to identity research by studying old(er) age and migrancy together and furthermore sheds light onto how the social constructionist lens allows us to see variability where stability otherwise would be presumed.

Making Sense of Belonging: Translocal Subjectivity and Rootedness of Turkish-Born Women in Sweden

“…Especially in the case of migration from low-income countries to highincome/Western countries, migrant women's experiences were primarily studied through an ethnic lens, meaning that their experiences and feelings were reduced to cultural traits. Nevertheless, studies on ageing migrants (Ciobanu, Fokkema & Nedelcu 2017;Machat-From 2017;Walsh & Näre 2016) as well as migrant women (Akpınar 2003;Ghorashi 2010;Martínez-Conde et al 2020;Ryan 2007;Rydzik & Anitha 2020) have become more diverse in the last decades.…”

“…It is important to explore how women make sense of belonging, since their experiences differ somewhat from those of men (Calasanti & Slevin 2001) with regard to the power dynamics at play in a migration context. Moreover, looking into the experiences of older women throughout their life course can help us understand the heterogeneity among the group of 'older migrants' who often portrayed as burdensome and very 'different' from native populations (Machat-From 2017;Torres 2015).…”

Időskor: társadalmi konstrukció és saját narratívák

“…Az időskor szociológiájában is előtérbe kerülnek a konstruktivista értelmezések; a szerzők az életút tagolódását és annak egyes szakaszait, így az időskort is társadalmilag felépített fogalomként kezelik (vö. Featherstone és Hepworth 1997[1988; Katz 1995;Machat-From 2017). A posztmodern megközelítések olyan kérdésekre fókuszálnak, mint az idősek identitáskonstrukciója a fogyasztói társadalomban (Biggs 2005;Featherstone és Hepworth 1997[1988) vagy a fogyasztói kultúra és az öregedő test kapcsolata.…”

“…Az egyénben jelentős feszültség keletkezhet az önmagáról alkotott belső képzetek, saját szubjektív észleletei és a társadalom által ráerőltetett kép között. Az öregedés maszkjával kapcsolatos elmélet szerint az idős ember, hogy a várakozásoknak megfeleljen, valóságos identitását maszk mögé rejti, mely mögött azonos marad fiatalkori önmagával (Featherstone és Hepworth 1997;Machat-From 2017). Eszerint az időskorúak eltitkolják azokat a gondolataikat, szokásaikat, érzéseiket, amelyek nem egyeztethetők össze a társadalom által definiált időskor képével.…”