Older migrants’ use of elderly care in Sweden: family affects choice between home help services and special housing

Abstract

Swedish elderly care consists mainly of two forms of care: home help services and special housing. The aim of this paper is to investigate and analyse how and to what extent older migrants use different forms of elderly care and to explore whether, and if so why, this is the case. The article uses a mixed method that combines a quantitative and a qualitative research approach. The study comprises statistics on the total population of elderly persons using home help services and special housing, and 10 telephone interviews with care managers. The results show that while Nordic migrants have similar patterns access to elderly care to Swedes, older migrants from the Middle East and Africa use home help services to a similar extent to older Swedes, but refrain from use of special housing due to the greater accessibility of home help services and the help they receive from family and relatives. To understand this disparity, the study highlights the role of filial piety and family obligation, which prescribe how the family should take care of elderly family members. The results show that the family significantly influences an elderlýs choice of public forms of care in ways that fit its preferences.