Introduction
This paper examines how research on minority ethnic ageing provides insights into global processes of economic and social change influencing the lives of older people. The discussion begins by exploring different approaches to ethnicity and their relevance for research in the field of ageing. Second, the background to work on ageing and ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom (UK) is reviewed, outlining findings from local studies carried out in the 1970s through to national surveys developed from the 1990s. Third, the paper considers theoretical perspectives on minority ethnic ageing, notably those linked with the development of ideas associated with ‘double’ and ‘triple’ jeopardy, and cumulative advantage/disadvantage. Fourth, the paper reviews a number of examples from the research literature (in the UK and elsewhere) to demonstrate the way in which ethnicity can be used to illustrate processes associated with globalisation, drawing on the lifecourse principle of ‘linked lives’ (Dannefer and Settersten Reference Dannefer, Settersten, Dannefer and Phillipson2010). Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions for embedding work on minority ethnic ageing within research in social gerontology.
To provide a framework for the discussion, the paper follows the approach taken by Craig et al. (Reference Craig, Atkin, Chattoo and Flynn2012: 22), who argue that ethnicity is best defined: ‘as a field of enquiry helping us to locate the material and cultural context within which ethnic identities, premised on notions of shared descent, heritage and culture (encompassing religion and language) are constantly redefined and contested by different social groups'. The authors elaborate on this as follows:
Hence, it is important to bear in mind that ethnicity, culture and community do not refer to fixed or essential characteristics that people ‘have’, but rather to dynamic processes of self-identity and differentiation involving the negotiation of boundaries of inclusion and exclusion between groups. These boundaries are fluid and shift according to the context of social interaction and struggles over power and resources over time. (Craig et al. Reference Craig, Atkin, Chattoo and Flynn2012: 23)
Linked with the above, Jenkins warns against the tendency to reify ethnicity, arguing that people neither ‘have’ nor ‘belong’ to an ethnic group:
They are, rather, complex repertoires which people experience, use, learn and do in their daily lives, within which they construct an ongoing sense of themselves and an understanding of their fellows. Ethnicity is best understood as an ongoing process of ethnic identification. (2008: 15)
Following the above, the argument explored in this paper is that developing research on minority ethnic ageing has become especially important for understanding the impact of globalisation in re-defining communities, relationships and identities, within and beyond nation states. Ethnicity can thus be seen as a reflexive category linked to global economic and social processes. Globalisation is itself a product of the movement of ethnic groups; equally, ethnic groups are themselves transformed by the possibilities created by global change (Izuhara Reference Izuhara2010). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a focus on minority ethnic ageing provides a distinctive approach to thinking about the relationship between age and social structure, and more especially for understanding the broad range of influences affecting people as they move through the lifecourse.
Ethnicity and ageing
Research on ethnicity and the range of issues affecting what has been termed ‘minority ethnic groups’ has, it might be argued, struggled to find a central place within studies of ageing. This statement is less applicable to the United States of America (USA), where a ‘heterogeneous population [and] turbulent race relations history’ (Mutchler and Burr Reference Mutchler, Burr, Settersten and Angel2011: 83) has fostered substantial research on the role of race and ethnicity in shaping experiences of ageing. Notwithstanding concerns about the limitations of this scholarship (Angel and Angel Reference Angel, Angel, Binstock and George2006), the theme of diversity appears strongly embedded within both theoretical debates (e.g. in studies of cumulative advantage and disadvantage) and empirical investigations (notably those relating to health and income inequalities; e.g. Kelly-Moore and Ferraro Reference Kelly-Moore and Ferraro2004; Markides, Salinas and Wong Reference Markides, Salinas, Wong, Dannefer and Phillipson2010).
Studies of minority ethnic ageing in the UK and in mainland Europe have experienced more protracted gestation (Grewal et al., Reference Grewal, Nazroo, Bajekal, Blane and Lewis2004) . In part this reflects a disciplinary issue, with minority ethnic ageing largely ignored as a topic within mainstream studies of race and ethnicity. But it may also reflect public policies in European countries which emphasised the ‘temporary’ status of particular migrant groups, this tending to marginalise concerns about the vulnerabilities and risks for those entering old age. In the UK, research can be traced back to the 1970s, with interest stimulated by the ageing of the earliest arrivals from the post-Second World War generation of migrants, notably those from the West Indies and India (Phillips and Phillips Reference Phillips and Phillips1998). This initial work focused around descriptive studies exploring the demographic, social and cultural characteristics of older migrants, and what was presented as their ‘unmet needs’ for health and social services (for a review, see Fennell, Phillipson and Evers Reference Fennell, Phillipson and Evers1988).
Much of the early research in the UK focused on community-based surveys (e.g. Fenton Reference Fenton1986; Holland and Lewando-Hundt Reference Holland and Lewando-Hundt1987), concerned with issues such as family structure, health status, financial issues and access to services (e.g. Berry, Lee and Griffiths Reference Berry, Lee and Griffiths1981; Donovan Reference Donovan1986). Such topics remain of considerable significance across all ethnic groups and to waves of new groups entering cities across the UK and mainland Europe. But ethnicity as defined earlier raises questions about the need to document changes in relationships and identities within and across ethnic groups; the nature of the communities which are built and how these evolve over time; and the maintenance of transnational ties.
Additional questions also arise from the definition of ethnicity presented which challenges a particular orientation in studies of ethnicity and ageing: namely the idea of ‘ethnic elders’ and the link with notions of cultural, economic and social disadvantage. Evidence for the extent of ‘structured dependency’ experienced by particular groups of older people is extensive (Nazroo Reference Nazroo, Anderson, Bulatao and Cohen2004; Phillipson Reference Phillipson2013; Storelli and Williamson Reference Storelli, Williamson, Formosa and Higgs2013). However, research on variations in the way in which disadvantage or inequality is experienced is much less developed. Moreover, because of limitations in how the concept of ethnicity has been applied in gerontology, contrasts within cohorts of minority ethnic groups have been insufficiently explored. Awareness of the diversity of the ageing experience is widely accepted (Dannefer and Settersten Reference Dannefer, Settersten, Dannefer and Phillipson2010). Yet this understanding has tended to be downplayed in relation to minority ethnic ageing where dominant approaches assume that inter-individual differences and intra-individual change carry less relevance (Kelly-Moore and Lin Reference Kelly-Moore, Lin, Settersten and Angel2011). But this seems especially unlikely given the complex lifecourse trajectories of minority ethnic groups where discontinuities in early life histories (see below) might be hypothesised to produce substantial heterogeneity in the middle and later phases of the lifecourse (Wray and Bartholomew Reference Wray and Bartholomew2006).
Theorising ethnic ageing
All of the above raises important issues in terms of developing theoretical perspectives on minority ethnic ageing. Initial approaches in the UK were conceptualised in terms of the idea of ‘triple jeopardy’, i.e. the view that people from particular ethnic groups face discrimination because they are old; that many will live in disadvantaged circumstances; and that they are likely to experience discrimination relating to their culture, skin colour or religious affiliation (Norman Reference Norman1985). Researchers in the USA had previously highlighted the ‘double disadvantage’ (or ‘double jeopardy’) experienced by minority groups in old age, linking together race/ethnic disadvantages with those associated with later life (Dowd and Bengston Reference Dowd and Bengston1978). These perspectives provided a useful orientation to thinking about the relationship between age, ethnicity and other social statuses. But their disadvantages were also apparent: first, in limiting the discussion about the range of inequalities affecting minority groups (e.g. the influence of the labour market, structural inequalities arising from the distribution of wealth and income); second, failure to acknowledge heterogeneity and inequalities within ethnic groups, with diversity increasing as ethnic groups span multiple generations and demonstrate contrasting patterns of adaptation within particular societies.
Alternative theoretical models have focused on the potential of a lifecourse approach as a framework for understanding minority ethnic ageing. In particular, this perspective provides a means of addressing sources of diversity and inequality characteristic of individuals within cohorts, and contrasts in the experience of different minority ethnic groups (Dannefer and Settersten Reference Dannefer, Settersten, Dannefer and Phillipson2010). One issue concerns how social stratification has a differential impact when comparing different ethnic groups, reflecting access to economic and social capital, experiences in the labour market, the impact of institutionalised racism and ageism, and related factors. An important theoretical model to emerge from discussions around the role of the lifecourse is that of cumulative advantage and disadvantage. Cumulative dis/advantage (CAD) refers to the tendency for inequality to increase among age peers as they move through the lifecourse. The argument here is that relatively high levels of observed inequality in old age partly reflect processes of social stratification that operate over the collective lifecourse of each succeeding cohort as it ages. Mutchler and Burr suggest that one advantage of the CAD thesis, as compared with the double or triple jeopardy thesis, is that:
…by explicitly directing attention to broader stratification processes associated with accumulation of human and other forms of capital, work and career trajectories, and the inter-generational transmission of poverty, it offers opportunities to specify within group differentiation, while acknowledging differences between race and ethnic groups as related to important trajectories and outcomes. (2011: 88–89)
An important qualification to the above is that lifecourse perspectives will need to attend to ‘discontinuities’ in biographies and transitions, these driven by transnational migration and processes of differentiation within minority ethnic groups. The traditional (linear) lifecourse is thus being challenged through migration flows, natural catastrophes, civil wars and global financial crises (Calhoun and Derluguian Reference Calhoun and Derluguian2011; Castells, Caraça and Cardoso Reference Castells, Caraça and Cardoso2012). Such experiences indicate the need to assimilate experiences of disruption and disorder into theoretical models that have tended to assume stability and predictability over the lifecourse. Moreover, further information is needed about the longer-term consequences (e.g. for health and income inequalities) of migration moves early in the lifecourse. Bauer and Thompson, for example, in their research on Jamaican migration to Britain and North America, refer to
a kind of grief intrinsic in migration itself, even when made in a spirit of hope or betterment. Some migrants for years continued to feel a general sense of loss, which they expressed in terms of feeling isolated. Migrant women were particularly likely to feel the absence of family and close local community at times of childbirth, but sometimes men spoke of similar feelings of loss. (2006: 5; see also Gardner Reference Gardner2002; Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer Reference Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer2003)
Similarly, Nazroo et al. in qualitative research on four ethnic groups in the UK – Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani and White – observed that for
…ethnic minority people migration had a disruptive effect on both family and friendship networks. The consequent reduction of social networks, for example loss of friendships formed from school days or during the transition into work, may explain their higher level of association with family implied by their higher scores on contact with family found in the quantitative analysis. (Reference Nazroo, Bajekal, Blane, Grewal and Lewis2003: 2)
The above observation bears out the importance of Kelly-Moore and Lin's (Reference Kelly-Moore, Lin, Settersten and Angel2011: 59) observation about incorporating the ‘“long reach” of early-life circumstances’ into studies of ageing, an argument which is especially relevant to understanding contrasting experiences within and between minority ethnic groups.
Using ethnicity to understand global social change
The argument developed in this paper is that research on ethnicity opens up new avenues for work in social gerontology, notably when studying the interplay between the lifecourse and global social change. Following this, one way of situating ethnicity within social gerontology is to place it within the context of what in lifecourse terms are referred to as ‘linked lives’. According to Dannefer and Settersten, this principle states:
that the life course of an individual's life is intimately shaped by the needs, circumstances, and choices of others. Despite the recognition that individual lives cannot be understood in isolation from others, the irony is that we analyse lives as if they were purely individual. Yet most of the things people struggle with, hope and plan for, and feel pain around are tied to relations with others. (2010: 14)
The authors further make the point that much of the work on ‘linked lives’ has been concentrated at a micro-sociological level – notably in relation to exploring intimate ties within the confines of nation states. In contrast, taking the standpoint of ethnicity draws in the ‘global linkage of lives’, illustrated in particular by the development of transnational communities, and the cosmopolitan nature of place and community. Both these aspects are explored below, with particular attention to the role of gender as a key dimension intersecting with that of ethnicity.
Ethnicity, migration and transnational communities
The importance of ethnicity as a driver of social change is reflected in the rise of what has been termed transnational communities. This development, first conceptualised in research developed in the mid-1980s and early 1990s (Portes and Bach Reference Portes and Bach1985), provided a challenge to the traditional focus on the nation state for understanding the variety of forces shaping people's lives. Glick-Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton defined transnationalism as the process by which:
immigrants build social fields that link together their country of origin and their country of settlement. Immigrants who build such fields are designated ‘transmigrants’. Transmigrants develop and maintain multiple relations … that span borders. Transmigrants take actions, make decisions, and feel concerns, and develop identities within social networks that connect them to two or more societies simultaneously. (Reference Glick-Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton1992: 5)
Transnational communities may themselves be said to reflect both the growth of a global economy and instabilities associated with civil wars and political conflicts, and the impact of both on the maintenance of family and community ties. This development has been especially important for re-thinking the approach to ethnicity and ageing in the UK, where the neighbourhood/locality focus of community-based research obscured the importance of ties maintained across geographical borders. Indeed, working through the implications of the movement of groups from the Caribbean, Bangladesh, Pakistan and elsewhere itself stimulated the debate about globalisation and global social policy, as illustrated in the work of Yeates (Reference Yeates2001) and Walker and Deacon (Reference Walker and Deacon2003) (see also Baars et al. Reference Baars, Dannefer, Phillipson and Walker2006).
The consequences of global trends associated with intensified international migration have spawned a substantial literature illustrating the activities of different ethnic groups in maintaining social, economic and cultural ties. Older people (from a range of ethnic groups) may experience migration in different ways: as first-generation migrants growing old in their second homeland (Burholt Reference Burholt2004); as migrants moving ‘back and forth’ between families living across different continents (Bauer and Thompson Reference Bauer and Thompson2006; Gardner Reference Gardner2002; Victor, Martin and Zubair Reference Victor, Martin and Zubair2012); as a group left behind coping with the loss of younger generations (Vullantari and King Reference Vullantari and King2008); as one involved with the management of transnational care-giving (Baldassar Reference Baldassar2007); or as ‘return migrants’ moving back to their ‘first homeland’ (Barrett and Mosca Reference Barrett and Mosca2013; Percival Reference Percival2013). Such movement is itself part – to return to an earlier point – of the social construction of ethnicity, and the way in which identity is (re-)negotiated in different social and cultural contexts (Bauman Reference Bauman1998; Jenkins Reference Jenkins2008).
For social gerontology, using the perspective of globalisation has been beneficial for re-thinking the approach to family relationships and the role of women in particular. The idea that families could be and increasingly are ‘transnational’ provided a new point of departure for sociological and policy-related work. The idea of the ‘transnational family’ emerged to illustrate the extent to which close ties could be maintained across national borders. Researchers such as Baldassar (Reference Baldassar2007: 276) highlighted the implications of this point for gerontology, providing a critique of the view that ‘care-giving requires proximity’. She went on to note that:
Empirically, the general preoccupation with geographic proximity means that very little research has been done on the relationships between ageing parents and adult children who live at a distance … with the result that transnational practices of care have remained largely invisible or assumed to be unfeasible. (Baldassar Reference Baldassar2007: 276)
The research literature is at an early stage of exploring the range of supportive ties maintained by migrants, these reflecting the cultural, economic and socio-legal factors that influence international migration (Field Reference Field, Field, Burke and Cooper2013). Kofman et al. in a survey of research on family-related migration, note that:
whilst there is a substantial literature on domestic labour … [and research] … focusing on migrant women who supply care at home in wealthy countries…, less attention has been paid to the care provided transnationally by families to their older parents left behind. (2011: 31)
Baldassar makes the point that the capacity of migrants to assist relatives in their first homeland will reflect the economic resources at their disposal. But beyond this it is also the case that:
…having the resources to participate does not necessarily mean that an individual will actively engage in transnational care-giving. The decision to exchange, how and when, is also informed by the negotiated commitments that develop out of family histories and personal relationships within families … Further, the particular practices of transnational care-giving are also influenced by a sense of obligation (felt need) to provide care, a notion that is closely bound up in cultural constructions of duty and care roles. (2007: 280)
Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer (Reference Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer2003) studied 100 first-generation migrant women from Bangladesh aged between 35 and 55 living in Tower Hamlets, London. The majority of the women still had a mother living in Bangladesh and they talked of the pressures associated with providing support given their own situation of financial hardship. Burholt and Wenger (Reference Burholt, Wenger, Silverstein and Schaie2005) examined the contacts maintained by first-generation South Asian migrants aged 55 and over living in Birmingham. Their study explored the experiences of Gujaratis, Pubjabis and Sylhetis in maintaining contact with children, siblings and other relatives living abroad. The research demonstrated important differences between ethnic groups both in the types of contact and links maintained between different family members. An important finding was that all the groups were more likely to visit siblings or relatives other than children. The findings indicated that contacts between extended family members seemed to be sustained in a way equivalent to those in the immediate family. Burholt and Wenger (Reference Burholt, Wenger, Silverstein and Schaie2005) make the point here that siblings in particular share a longer history of intimate family experiences and that this relationship may become stronger in later life:
Siblings and other extended family members, in their last years of life, are among the very few who have memories of their own parents and childhood … the maintenance of these ties may encompass personal reminiscence in addition to the ‘reinforcement of national identity abroad’. (2005: 169)
Research on the relationship between globalisation and migration has also shed light on changes in the position of women within ethnic groups. Early literature in this area noted the significant role played by women in the construction of what Hochschild (Reference Hochschild, Hutton and Giddens2000: 131) termed ‘global care chains’, these representing the ‘personal links between people across the globe based on the paid or unpaid work of caring’ (see also Evergeti and Ryan Reference Evergeti, Ryan, Kofman, Kohli and Schmoll2011). But the migration literature also highlights conflicting pressures as indicated in the question formulated by DeLaet (Reference DeLaet, Kelson and DeLaet1999: 2): ‘Does international migration provide women with an opportunity for liberating themselves from subordinate gender roles in their countries of origin, or are traditional gender roles perpetuated in the host societies?’ (see also Kofman et al. Reference Kofman, Kraler, Kohli, Schmoll, Kraler, Kofman, Kohli and Schmoll2011).
Any attempt to answer the question posed by DeLaet raises a number of issues in terms of the changing position of women within ethnic groups. Female migrants may in fact occupy a distinctive position within transnational communities. Gardner (cited in Ahmed Reference Ahmed2013) argues that first-generation migrant women played a vital role in establishing the process of migration from Sylhet (Bangladesh) to the UK. Women were instrumental in enabling men to migrate in the first place and were important in maintaining family life in Bangladesh and subsequently in the UK (Gardner Reference Gardner2002). Bauer and Thompson (Reference Bauer and Thompson2006) suggest that their Jamaican transnational families might be ‘pioneering a “modern” form of family life that will become more common in the future’. Also they note the importance of women within transnational families – ‘kin-keeping’ across the globe rather than just in neighbourhoods:
We have seen how in many families, even when men are present and significant, particular women become dynamic and activating figures around whom the kinship revolves. In several families there is one woman above all responsible for the family's migration strategy, who is described as ‘the mother of the family’ or even as ‘the father of the whole family’. For generations – perhaps back to the slave era, when women were already marketers for family produce – it is women in Jamaican families who have been expected to take the strategic role, to ‘tink and plan’. For the present generation, thinking and planning needs to be international as well as local: it needs ‘a very global vision’. (Bauer and Thompson Reference Bauer and Thompson2006: 214)
Most of the women interviewed in the study by Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer (Reference Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer2003) had come from well-established family and social networks within villages and towns in Bangladesh. For them, migration was a significant economic gamble but one with social and cultural implications in addition. Reflecting this point, Gardner (Reference Gardner1995) suggests that migration can be viewed as ‘part of a wider project in which individuals and households strive to reinvent themselves’. Ultimately though, this process can be seen as illustrating the way in which ethnicities are ‘re-worked’ in a global environment. But the role ascribed (rather than ‘achieved’) to women does not come without costs. One of the early studies in the UK of South Asian and African-Caribbean migrants highlighted loneliness as a special problem for older women who often spoke no English and who spent much of their time at home (Donovan Reference Donovan1986). Gardner (Reference Gardner2002: 121), in her research on Bengali migrants to London, commented on ‘loneliness and loss [as] very real issues for women of the older generation’. And she placed this in the context of the: ‘particular characteristics of my informants, who were mostly carers coping with very sick … husbands, often in poverty. Others were widows, or elders whose families could not support them. It is not therefore surprising that many [older women] were depressed’ (Gardner Reference Gardner2002: 121; for an account of similar experiences among a sample of middle-aged Bangladeshi women, see also Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer Reference Phillipson, Ahmed and Latimer2003).
But the broader picture is about how the interplay between ethnicity and transnational migration influences identities maintained within families and across generations (Kofman et al. Reference Kofman, Kraler, Kohli, Schmoll, Kraler, Kofman, Kohli and Schmoll2011; Vertovec Reference Vertovec2001). Cylwik (Reference Cylwik2002: 611), studying intergenerational relations among Greek Cypriot migrants in London, showed how migration and the accompanying shrinkage of social networks ‘increased the significance of the bond between parents and their children’. In contrast, Attias-Donfut and Waite (Reference Attias-Donfut, Waite, Attias-Donfut, Cook, Hoffman and Waite2012), exploring African migration, highlight potential tensions developing over time in relationships between grandparents, parents and children. They observe that: ‘Generation gaps are likely to emerge as successive generations drift towards the mainstream culture and away from their ancestral culture’ (Attias-Donfut and Waite Reference Attias-Donfut, Waite, Attias-Donfut, Cook, Hoffman and Waite2012: 51). Foner and Dreby, however, in a review of a large number of American research studies of immigrant families, conclude that:
In many, probably most cases, conflict is mixed with caring and cooperation, and rejection of some parental standards and practices is coupled with acceptance of others. In immigrant families, as in families in the wider U.S. population, familial norms of responsibility and feelings of closeness generally characterize intergenerational relations, which are a source of material, practical and emotional support. (Reference Foner and Dreby2011: 548)
Ethnicity, place and building communities
Ethnicity has also proved to be an important concept for understanding processes associated with changes affecting neighbourhoods and communities. Initial research on this issue confirmed the advantages accruing from the geographical concentration of particular ethnic groups, notably in terms of access to specialist services (Bhalla and Blakemore Reference Bhalla and Blakemore1981). Protection from the experience of racism was another factor, with concern about the impact of racial harassment featuring in a number of studies (Barker Reference Barker1984; Berry, Lee and Griffiths Reference Berry, Lee and Griffiths1981; Cooper Reference Cooper and Glendenning1979). But the importance of residential security for improving the quality of daily life was also acknowledged. Barker (Reference Barker1984: 20, cited in Blakemore and Boneham Reference Blakemore and Boneham1994), in a study of African-Caribbeans in London and Manchester, commented on the ‘remarkable stability of living arrangements and locality of residence. Blakemore and Boneham (Reference Blakemore and Boneham1994: 67) concluded that despite the problems older African-Caribbeans faced within their neighbourhoods, ‘staying put has resulted in a degree of identification with, and rootedness in, local neighbourhoods’.
The research of Bajekal et al. (Reference Bajekal, Blane, Grewal, Karlsen and Nazroo2004), drawing on the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, found that ethnic minority groups had on average a more positive perception of the availability of amenities and services in their local area, in comparison with White respondents. The authors concluded that: ‘Although generally located in deprived inner-city areas, residential concentration imparts tangible benefits for ethnic communities e.g. bringing together community resources to build places of worship and to sustain shops and businesses that serve community-specific needs' (Bajekal et al. Reference Bajekal, Blane, Grewal, Karlsen and Nazroo2004: 725). The advantages resulting from residential concentrations of minority ethnic groups has been explored in a variety of studies (e.g. Bécares et al. Reference Bécares, Nazroo, Jackson and Heuvelman2012; Halpern and Nazroo Reference Halpern and Nazroo2012). What has been described as the ‘ethnic density effect’ suggests that ‘the enhanced mutual social support and stronger sense of community and belongingness offered by living in close proximity to others with the same ethnic background can buffer, or protect against, the direct and indirect health consequences of experienced racist victimisation’ (Karlson, Bécares and Roth Reference Karlson, Becares, Roth, Craig, Atkin, Chattoo and Flynn2012: 122).
Buffel and Phillipson (Reference Buffel and Phillipson2011) focus on the way in which communities are constructed through the activities of migrant groups, drawing upon an account of the activities of Somali and Pakistani older people in Manchester and Moroccan and Turkish elders in Brussels (see also Buffel, Phillipson and Scharf Reference Buffel, Phillipson and Scharf2013). A sense of ‘attachment to place’ was a strong element in people's narratives about memories and experiences that had accumulated from living in their neighbourhood, with two recurring themes emerging in the various accounts: first, the proximity of members to their cultural community which offered opportunities for developing social networks and realising common social bonds; and, second, the proximity of ethnic amenities. Both these elements were illustrated by the way in which the transnational ties and practices of older migrants had helped to transform their neighbourhoods into what could be described as a ‘transnational social space’ (Faist Reference Faist2000). For example, the establishment and use of ethnic business and communal places such as tea houses and watching satellite television, all reflect transnational practice, but at the same time, they are part of what has been termed ‘the creation of new places of belonging’ (Ehrkamp Reference Ehrkamp2005) within the receiving society. Lefebvre (Reference Lefebvre1991) has suggested that such productions of – potentially new – forms of social space can be seen as part of group identity formation, which he considers as a fundamental right of all inhabitants of the city.
Gender is also an important dimension in the use of space within communities. Gardner (Reference Gardner2002: 140), in her Bethnal Green study, noted that whilst women were physically more mobile than they would have been in Bangladesh, in other ways they were more constrained: ‘Confined to small flats in high-rise buildings and fearful of moving into non-Bengali areas of Tower Hamlets, it is the material conditions of the borough, plus the ever-present fear of racist attack, rather than purdah that are the most dominant [influences]’. Victor, Martin and Zubair (Reference Victor, Martin and Zubair2012), in a study of South Asian communities in the south-east of England, suggested that the gendered use of space could make women at greater risk of isolation in middle and later life. Spatial differences were also highlighted by Buffel and Phillipson (Reference Buffel and Phillipson2011) in research in Brussels, Manchester, Liverpool and London (Newham), where they noted that in comparison with older migrant women, men tended to have more informal gatherings with friends outdoors, for example in the mosques, cafes or tea houses; these are regarded as ‘male spaces’, by women as well as men. Islamic prescriptions, outlining that men and women should keep sufficient physical distance and should not meet in private, may further support such ‘male territoriality’, since women should not enter a space where men are already present.
On the other hand, Buffel and Phillipson (Reference Buffel and Phillipson2011) also highlighted evidence that older women succeeded in appropriating certain places. This was especially the case in private spaces, in their home or those of family or friends where they had informal meetings with other women, but also in some semi-public spaces such as community associations, where women came together to attend language courses, programmes tackling illiteracy or computer courses. Moroccan women in Brussels made reference to a particular park which they regularly visited with their grandchildren and where they met with other women. This park was seen as a place where they could escape from the social control of men. Reflecting on developments such as these, Gardner concludes that:
Gender roles are thus not fixed but fluid and flexible, and change over time and space. Whilst earlier studies of ‘women in Bangladesh’ relied upon relatively inflexible descriptions of purdah and the oppression that it was assumed this involved, more recent work indicates the way in which norms of seclusion and modesty are negotiated by different women, and moves away from a focus purely on women as ‘victims’ of culture. (2002: 137)
Conclusion
This paper has identified a number of reasons for making ethnicity a core area of work in social gerontology. Demographic change will itself be a central driver in this process, with ethnic diversity increasingly characteristic of older as much as younger populations (Lievesley Reference Lievesley2010). But, as has been argued, population change must be viewed in the context of the variety of forces associated with globalisation, notably with the rise of transnational communities, and changes to neighbourhoods and communities within urban environments. The point has been made that using ethnicity as a way of thinking about the inter-play between age and social structure opens up new directions for research in gerontology. The idea of ‘linked lives’, for example, is central to the lifecourse approach, providing significant insights into the collective nature of everyday life. But this principle is greatly extended when viewed through the lens of ethnicity, with greater appreciation of the scope and complexity of the relationships and networks maintained by individuals. Moreover, the reflexive nature of ethnicity becomes apparent when viewed in relation to globalisation, with ethnic groups making global change happen in different ways, but bearing the costs as well as the benefits.
This paper sets out to illustrate the insights gained from focusing on minority ethnic ageing as a central feature of research in social gerontology. But this raises the question of how best to achieve this given the continuing neglect of this topic even within the broad subject area of race and ethnic studies.
A number of suggestions might be made to assist this objective. First, there is an urgent need to move away from largely descriptive research about the health and social problems associated with ethnic group membership and consider some of the advantages instead. Mutchler and Burr (Reference Mutchler, Burr, Settersten and Angel2011: 83) argue in the US context that a great deal is known from descriptive studies about the disadvantages faced by older members of minority ethnic groups in later life: ‘In contrast, the potential benefits associated with ethnic group membership are poorly documented. Moreover, far less knowledge has been accumulated related to the causal pathways linking race or ethnic group membership to these outcomes as people age’.
Second, developing analyses which recognise the interaction between ethnicity and other key social statuses – notably age, class, gender and sexuality – is also vital (Torres Reference Torres, Baars, Dannefer, Phillipson and Walker2006). Indeed, the failure to work across all dimensions has substantially reduced understanding of the impact of ethnic identity on the range of inequalities influencing everyday life. As the discussion in this paper has indicated, incorporating frameworks such as those associated with the CAD model would be a step forward in this regard, leading to greater appreciation of heterogeneity within as well as between cohorts of minority ethnic groups.
Third, making work on minority ethnic ageing central to studies in social gerontology brings out important issues for public policy. Thus far, the contrasting needs of different ethnic groups for financial, health, social and other sources of support have been neglected in the research literature – notably in respect of the UK and mainland Europe. Moreover, where these issues are highlighted, a discourse inflected with notions of ‘burden’ and ‘dependency’ is often applied. But the lesson from research is one of older people engaged with communities in complex ways, receiving care in some instances but more often creating new ways of providing support – both within and across nation states.
Finally, focusing on issues relating to minority ethnic ageing brings to social gerontology awareness of the complexity of discrimination as a feature of later life. In this respect, early theories such as ‘triple’ or ‘double’ jeopardy (see above) were important in highlighting the interlocking nature of age-based and ethnic-based discrimination. A key task is to bring this awareness back into research in gerontology which has tended – even with the advent of critical perspectives – to focus on ‘ageism’ rather than ‘racism’ as driving the social production of inequality through the lifecourse.
In conclusion, ethnicity and the study of minority ethnic ageing provides a challenge for social gerontology but one which will greatly enrich the discipline – at theoretical, methodological and empirical levels – if made a central part of its endeavours. The key task is to identify the new research agendas which might emerge in response to this development. Many of these will link to traditional concerns within research on social aspects of ageing, notably around inequality, the study of family and household structures, work and retirement, and community and neighbourhood attachments. But researching minority ethnic ageing provides a reminder of the complexity of the lifecourse, and of the diversity of ageing as a cultural and social construction. Ensuring these insights become part of mainstream work in social gerontology will enable the development of a discipline which maintains relevance in a context of intense global change.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the deputy editor and anonymous referees for their feedback and constructive comments. Dr Tine Buffel also provided valuable suggestions on various drafts of the paper.
