Social Protection without Borders? The Use of Social Services by Retirement Migrants living in Spain

Abstract

This article seeks to assess the extent to which international retirement migrants (IRMs) living in Spain make use of public elder-care services, as well as how public officials deal with their demands. The data stems from qualitative interviews with 19 social workers in ten communities characterised by a sizable population of retirement migrants. We found that substantial numbers of retirement migrants remain in Spain well after dependency sets in. This necessitates the development of complex strategies to obtain care by means of social networks, voluntary associations, and private care providers. A certain reluctance to engage with Spanish social services may explain the fact that these services are accessed only as a last resort when all other options have failed. However, the entire process of evaluating the needs of, and granting public care services to, retirement migrants is plagued by difficulties. Social workers cite the lack of a common language as a significant obstacle, together with insufficient information on claimants’ health, economic and family situations (many IRMs are not registered as residents in Spain). The familistic rules governing Spanish social services and the recent reductions in public budgets due to the economic crisis constitute additional barriers to the adequate protection of IRMs.

Migrating to a new country in late life: A review of the literature on international retirement migration

“…Also, more attention could be paid to prior life events, especially adverse events, as differences in the past might explain some of the differences between retirement migrants in the present. Finally, while the research on macro-level factors has so far focused on the 2008 financial crisis (i.e., Salvati and Benassi 2021;Calzada 2018), interesting questions arise with changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially questions about changes in border control. As transnational practices are a big part of the lives of retirement migrants, not being able to cross borders very easily, or sometimes not at all due to lockdowns, might impact return migration or the future of retirement migration.…”

“…Due to a lack of communication between formal state care and retirement migrants, some formal state care is difficult to access. Interviews with 200 retirement migrants in Spain (Calzada 2018) showed that most migrants used formal state care as a last resort and attempted to get help from personal networks and private care providers first. The lack of communication resulted from migrants not speaking the language, which became problematic when they needed health care services that were provided in only the local language (Hall 2021;Hall and Hardill 2016;Hardill et al 2005;Kohno et al 2016).…”

Turning the Welfare-Migration Nexus Upside-Down: The Case of European Retirees in Spain

“…Some researchers have already started to focus on the physical vulnerability of British retirees and possible return strategies (Huete et al, 2013;Giner-Monfort et al, 2016), while a smaller group of researchers has looked at what happens to those who decide to stay in Spain despite worsening health conditions (Ahmed & Hall, 2016;Hall & Hardill, 2016). Yet, most of the currently available works on the welfare-migration nexus focus on the use that retirees make of welfare services and their satisfaction with the Spanish healthcare system (Betty & Cahill, 1999;Legido-Quingley & La Parra, 2007;Coldron & Ackers, 2009;Legido-Quigley et al, 2012;Calzada, 2018). Others have analysed how international retirees rely on affordable private welfare providers such as migrant care workers (Gavanas & Calzada, 2016), charity organisations (Haas, 2013) or transnational practices to obtain social protection (Schriewer & Rodes, 2008;Gehring, 2015).…”

British and Japanese international retirement migration and creative responses to health and care challenges: a bricolage perspective

“…Whilst language and cultural barriers do persist, IRMs report Spanish healthcare to be good and few use private healthcare services (Hall 2016). Public social care is underpinned by residency and so British nationals who have been legally resident in Spain for 5 years are entitled to support from Spanish Social Services (Calzada 2017). Whilst some British IRMs are affluent, EU citizenship means that some IRMs can and do move to Spain with only the small British state pension leaving them dependent on public welfare systems (Hall and Hardill 2016).…”