December 15, 2023

As International Migrants Day approaches on 18 December, we ought to ponder how migration affects Singapore’s society. Research on migration includes extensive research on younger populations’ concept of futurity. The concept is not usually tagged to older adults as they are seen to be nearing the end-of-life and are less concerned with making future plans. This special issue is a collection of papers that attempt to address this assumption, demonstrating how futurity is perceived in older adults through their relationship with migration; specifically, showing how older adults approach ageing with the intention of ageing well with clear goals.

There are various reasons why older adults may choose to move abroad; some may want to stretch their funds, while others may seek caregiving resources unavailable at home. Migration is the key variable in these papers, the authors exploring the different ways migration and ageing interact for older adults to form perceptions of their future. Professor Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho, Professor Brenda S.A. Yeoh (both NUS Department of Geography and Asia Research Institute), Associate Professor Leng Leng Thang (NUS Department of Japanese Studies), and Emeritus Professor Shirlena Huang (NUS Department of Geography) look into these issues in the collection, ‘(Re)constructing Ageing Futures: Insights from Migration in Asia and Beyond’ (American Behavioral Scientist, 2022). The collection, containing six papers, unites studies from the Global North and South, demonstrating the influences of ageing migrants on both the societies they leave and join.

The collection begins with Prof. Huang’s paper on older adults’ expectations on caregiving, considering the differences between whether their children live abroad or not. Although proximate care is often assumed to be more ideal, Prof. Huang finds that proximity should not be the sole marker for quality caregiving. The second paper, by Sun and Cao, discusses the emotional implications of similar relations, exploring the perceived closeness exhibited between family members who reside close-by and those far apart. Sun and Cao also investigate the key similarities between internal and international migration.

Baldassar, Stevens and Wilding’s paper follows, discussing how younger Chinese grandparents are better equipped to maintain close ties across long distances due to better digital literacy. The authors conclude that digital proficiency is a crucial skill for older migrants. The next paper by Johnston and Pratt investigates how older adults, originally from the Global North, have migrated to Thailand to leverage on comparatively inexpensive care options. This not only benefits the migrants, but also provides job opportunities for local Thai care workers, including marginalized communities; alluding to a potentially unexpected yet symbiotic relationship between the Global North and South.

Building on this, Toyota’s paper studies the phenomenon of lower-income Japanese men moving to Thailand for the lower cost of living. She considers their social and emotional implications of doing so; how their self-esteem deteriorates due to their newfound unemployment and thus, how they leave Japan out of fear of ostracization. Amrith’s paper concludes the series, discussing the insufficiencies of transnational social protections in the context of ageing Filipino domestic workers.

The collection explores the different facets of ageing futures from various perspectives within both the Global North and South. As a result, it intends to demonstrate the key implications of migration not only in older adults but also in their caregiver relations. The special issue aims to provoke reflections within the readers in considering the unorthodox concept of ‘futurity’ in older adults and examining the social, cultural, and political differences across the different contexts.

Read the article here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00027642221075265