seven - Moving and caring

Summary

Introduction

We have already rehearsed some of the legal consequences of different forms of social contribution, and in particular unpaid, caring work on the formal citizenship status and welfare entitlement of retirement migrants. Chapter Three referred to the impact of care on the labour market participation of women and the long-term implications of this in terms of post-retirement choices and autonomy within marriage. It also discussed the extent to which stereotypical conceptions of ageing have informed the evolution of Community citizenship entitlement, particularly the association of retirement with dependency and passivity and of unilateral flows of caring resources. This limited and static perception of old age as an homogeneous life course phase with the retired population apparently sharing a common experience of progressively evolving dependency fails to recognise the fact that the population of retired persons encompasses two generations (Warnes, 1993) and that relationships within those two generations are characterised by a reciprocity of care giving and receipt. The failure to acknowledge the important social and economic contribution that retired people make, as care providers and consumers, reinforces their conceptualisation in Community law as a potential ‘burden’ on welfare systems, legitimising their more circumscribed entitlement under the free movement provisions.

The interviews with retired migrants included a range of questions around migration motivations and the impact of moving on the spread of family resources, caring needs and the dislocation of family relationships over geographical and legal spaces. The responses of the different groups of retirees interviewed (post-retirement migrants, returnees and returning workers) indicated a clustering of different experiences, although common themes emerged. This chapter focuses on the relationship between care and mobility and the ways in which the interviewees managed transnational kinship.

International migration research rarely considers the issue of care as a factor precipitating or shaping mobility. Indeed, the focus within most migration research on economic factors and profit maximisation by definition underplays the importance of care. While recent years have seen increased interest in the impact of family on mobility, in general the concern is with children and concerns around family formation as a barrier to mobility (Ackers, 1998; Ackers and Stalford, 2002). One reason for the lack of attention to care has been the focus on mobility during people's working lives. However, recent interest in international retirement migration would also appear to ‘play down’ the relationship between care and migration.