The effect of home-making on the well-being of elderly Antillean immigrants

Researchers

Debbie Lager and Louise Meijering

Summary of the project

With ageing and upon retirement, the question of where one wants to grow old becomes relevant. The (imminent) decrease in physical and mental abilities often requires a move to a house adapted to elderly people’s specific needs. It is important for people to age in a place where they feel at home, as it has been argued that attachment to place increases well-being in old age. Feeling at home may increase a person’s well-being, and with that his/her quality of life. It is of particular interest to study migrant home-making, as the migration experience is an extra layer, adding elements from different cultures and different places. In this project, we focus on home-making of elderly Antillean immigrants in the Netherlands, at the scale of the house and immediate living environment.

Central questions are:

1. How do Antillean migrants make a home in their old age?
2. How does attachment to the home place affect their well-being?

I draw on qualitative life- history interviews with Antillean elderly, who live in a residential community. Home-making is studied as a material and symbolic process, through discussing the different experiences, memories and significant objects that make up the home place.

Papers

• Meijering, L. & D. Lager (submitted) “Holland is my home”: home-making of older Antillean immigrants in the Netherlands.
• Lager, D. & L. Meijering (to be submitted to ESRP, special issue on Healthy Ageing) Well-being and place attachment of older Antillean immigrants in the Northern Netherlands.

Conference Papers

• Lager, D. & L. Meijering (2010) /Well-being and place attachment of older Antillean immigrants in the Northern Netherlands/. Paper presented at the BSPS Conference in Exeter, 13-15 September 2010
• Meijering, L. & D. Lager (2010) /“Holland is my home”. Home-making of elderly Antillean immigrants in the Netherlands/. Paper presented at the Paper presented at the ESF Conference Home, Migration and the City, Linköping, Sweden, 6-10 August 2010