Emigration and the care of older people ‘left behind’: the changing role of neighbourhood networks, ethnicity and civil society

Abstract

Rapid population ageing and international migration are demographic trends which intersect and contribute to far-reaching transformations of local networks and communities. Academic literature has often focused on the impact of migration on receiving communities or narrowly on ‘left behind’ individuals and households. Less consideration has been given to impacts on wider neighbourhood networks and social relationships in sending countries, or the agency of non-migrants in transforming and re-creating networks disrupted by emigration. This article draws on qualitative interviews among a German-speaking minority in Romania which experienced dramatic outmigration to Germany in 1990. The evidence shows that local networks adjusted to outmigration by bringing in new actors previously not involved in support provision; in this case, neighbours belonging to different ethnic groups with whom relations were previously distant. In addition, existing civil society institutions, such as the church, intensified and extended their role to offer practical support and physical care. By examining these transformations through the prism of care in later life, the depth of social transformations ensuant on migration can be brought into sharp relief.