Returning ‘home’ after retirement? The role of gender in return migration decisions of Spanish and Turkish migrants

Abstract

This paper examines how gender plays a role in the decision-making processes of older migrants on where to live after retirement. It is based on 20 in-depth interviews with Spanish-born migrants and 56 in-depth interviews with Turkish-born migrants who spent their working lives in the Netherlands and returned to their country of origin or started moving back and forth between both countries after retirement. Existing studies on return migration have shown that women are often more reluctant than men to settle back in their country of origin, yet these studies also acknowledge that more in-depth research should be conducted on the role of gender in migrants' decision-making on return migration. In this paper, we examine, firstly, why our female respondents were often more reluctant to return and how this influenced the decision-making processes of couples or families. Secondly, we analyse how the different citizenship statuses of the respondents (Dutch, Spanish, Turkish and/or European) influenced their decision-making and how citizenship interacted with gender differences.

Transnational aging among older Turkish and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands: Determinants of transnational behavior and transnational belonging

“…We found support for Hypothesis 2, which is consistent with earlier found gender differences in desiring return migration (Bocker & Gehring, 2015). Having children in the country of settlement is a reason for Turkish migrants to not consider a permanent return, but not for Moroccan migrants.…”

“…Despite these limitations, we add to existing research on transnational aging, firstly, by decomposing transnational aging into a behavioral and an emotional, imaginative component and arguing that different factors may have different impacts on the two dimensions. We thereby go beyond the "mere" question of return after retirement, on which some previous studies have focused (Bocker & Gehring, 2015;Bolzman et al, 2006;De Coulon & Wolff, 2010). Secondly, by using quantitative data, we were able to more systematically study determinants of transnational aging, a not much-undertaken effort.…”

Conducting Empirical Research With Older Migrants: Methodological and Ethical Issues

“…An important reason is the lack of available or reliable data on sociodemographic characteristics of the target group from official sources (population registers, census data). One example is the invisibility of a nonnegligible share of international retirement migrants in the official figures, namely those who have not registered as residents in the country of destination ( Böcker & Balkir, 2012 ; Bolzman et al, 2021 ). Qualitative researchers should be especially aware that involving gatekeepers may lead to selection bias.…”

Gendered Migrations

“…Their study shows that decisions on return migration are not made in isolation, but negotiated within intra-family politics, where generational and gendered power relations within the family are decisive for migratory outcomes. Reluctance to return on the part of women also seems to stem from care obligations, for instance, for children or grandchildren born in the country of settlement, to a greater degree than for male migrants (Böcker and Gehring 2015). Strong motivations for return, such as social isolation and longing for "home," prevail among both men and women.…”