Ageing strategically: On migration, care, and diversity in later life

Abstract

This paper discusses how different groups of older migrants originating in the Global North and Global South converge in the Portuguese islands of the Azores—a microcosm of global migration and a site of inscribed healthcare inequalities—where they strategically maximise the economic and social capital accumulated over the life course to achieve a better life (style). Drawing on the concepts of “strategic switching” and “geographic arbitrage,” the paper extends these debates to the domains of ageing and care. Based on qualitative research with three groups of ageing migrants—lifestyle, return, and ageing-in-place labour migrants—the paper shows how different groups of older migrants perform their agency and employ creative strategies to attain better ageing care, in other words, to age strategically. The paper ultimately reveals the centrality of practices of geographic arbitrage and the use of a strategic lens to mobility over the life course in order to achieve a more comfortable older age.