Care and caring among ageing migrant workers in two informal settlements in Harare

Abstract

In this study of older migrants living in informal settlements in Harare, we seek to understand what care and caring means for older people ageing far from their place of origin in conditions of informality in a country with no formal care infrastructure. We find that care relations derive from histories of migration, community, kinship, aspiration, displacement and disenfranchisement, with the provision of security within insecure systems core to the very idea of care. Further action is needed at all levels to foreground how older migrants are living on Zimbabwean society’s margins and to facilitate their daily practices of care.