Home/Sick: The Health–Migration Order

Abstract

This chapter focuses on health-related factors as a rationale for preferring back-and-forth migration over return at retirement. For some respondents being in good health was a prerequisite for coming to France in the first place, given the rigorous recruitment practices which prioritised physical strength and conditioning. Later in life, health again orders migration, but this time it is the fact of poor health which dictates some people’s trips to France, in order to receive healthcare. Hostel residents do not differ markedly from the rest of the elderly population in France as regards health conditions. What does distinguish them however is their earlier onset of health problems. As a consequence many hostel residents have, over the years, developed strong relationships of trust in French medical services. Maintaining inclusion in the French healthcare system is therefore an important priority for older hostel residents, and one which timetables their trips to France. Just as was found in Chap. 3, the men’s ‘non-standard’ biographies have a bearing on their interactions with healthcare providers. As discussed in Sect. 4.3, non-standard biographical features include premature ageing due to difficult working conditions and work accidents; language barriers in the patient-carer relationship; and lack of family entourage to provide informal care, meaning that an extra duty of care falls upon formal providers.