Older People and Migration ─ Challenges for Social Work

With neo-liberal resource rationing, and the onus of cost shifting from the state to individuals, families, and communities, migration issues can add a further layer of complexity to the question of caring for the elderly. By presenting examples from a variety of contexts and countries, this book will stimulate readers into considering new approaches to their own local situation in an attempt to find sustainable social work responses, and in helping to build intergenerational solidarity and social capital.

Contributions to the book focus on patterns of migration: older migrants, migrating families and migrant carers. Facilitating and supporting social solidarity both locally and internationally requires social workers to understand the different contexts for elderly social work both within their own country, and internationally. Central to this area of work is the promotion of values that respect differences and uphold the principles of human rights and social justice. This book highlights the need to consider migration as a driver for social change, offering the opportunity for new forms of social solidarity that can adapt and support people inter-generationally and sustainably in later life. This book was originally published as a special issue of theEuropean Journal of Social Work.

Susan Lawrence is President of the European Association of Schools of Social Work (EASSW), Regional Vice President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), and until 2013 was Head of Social Work at London Metropolitan University, UK. She qualified as a social worker in1976 and has been a social work academic since 1991.

Sandra Torres is Professor of Sociology & Chair in Social Gerontology at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research – which often lies at the intersection between the sociology of ageing and the sociology of migration and ethnic relations – problematizes old age-related constructs, sheds critical light on commonly used methods in health and social care, and deconstructs some of the assumptions that guide policy and practice for the older segments of our populations.