Paper short abstract:

Provision of care is dependent on ’dwelling’ in a temporal and/or spatial perspective; lifelong family relations or membership of a demarcated nation state. Departing from three elderly person´s stories, I will discuss what can happen when care needs occur in the lives of people who have migrated.

Paper long abstract:

Migrants are mostly configured as young, male immigrants or families with children. However, elderly people do move and migrate as well, or younger migrants grow older and eventually face a life in frailty and need of care. Among the global migrant population, the proportion of older persons is significant, constituting 12,5% of all migrants in 2015 (UN 2015). As any other population group, this group is signified by vast diversity considering values and traditions, living conditions and arrangements, social situations, health status etc.

Provision of care seems in many cases to be dependent on 'dwelling' in a temporal and/or spatial perspective, pointing to lifelong family relations or a formal membership of a demarcated nation state with certain welfare benefits. What happens when care needs occur in the lives of people who have moved or migrated, and who have not established - or have lost - the necessary relations of temporal and spatial kind? I will present three migrants with three different histories concerning care needs in later life. One is a Danish woman who migrated to Spain, the second is an Iranian woman who migrated to Denmark, and the third is a (supposedly) stateless man from Russia who ended his life in Denmark. In what ways did mobility and dwelling influence the care relations by the end of their lives?

United Nations 2015. International Migration 2015. Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/wallchart/docs/MigrationWallChart2015.pdf