Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:19:49.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Protection without Borders? The Use of Social Services by Retirement Migrants living in Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2017

INÉS CALZADA
INÉS CALZADA*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Violante de Hungría 23. 50009, Zaragoza, Spain e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article seeks to assess the extent to which international retirement migrants (IRMs) living in Spain make use of public elder-care services, as well as how public officials deal with their demands. The data stems from qualitative interviews with 19 social workers in ten communities characterised by a sizable population of retirement migrants. We found that substantial numbers of retirement migrants remain in Spain well after dependency sets in. This necessitates the development of complex strategies to obtain care by means of social networks, voluntary associations, and private care providers. A certain reluctance to engage with Spanish social services may explain the fact that these services are accessed only as a last resort when all other options have failed. However, the entire process of evaluating the needs of, and granting public care services to, retirement migrants is plagued by difficulties. Social workers cite the lack of a common language as a significant obstacle, together with insufficient information on claimants’ health, economic and family situations (many IRMs are not registered as residents in Spain). The familistic rules governing Spanish social services and the recent reductions in public budgets due to the economic crisis constitute additional barriers to the adequate protection of IRMs.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 21 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackers, L. and Dwyer, P. (2004), ‘Fixed laws, fluid lives: the citizenship status of post-retirement migrants in the European Union’, Ageing & Society, 24, 451–475.Google Scholar
Åkerlund, U. (2013), The Best of Both Worlds. Aspirations, Drivers and Practices of Swedish Lifestyle Movers in Malta, Umeå, Sweden: Umeå University.Google Scholar
Baumberg, B. (2016), ‘The stigma of claiming benefits: a quantitative study’, Journal of Social Policy, 45, 2, 181–199.Google Scholar
Bayir, D. and Shah, P. (2012), ‘The Legal Adaptation of British Settlers in Turkey’, Transcultural Studies, 8, 1, 43–76.Google Scholar
Blaakilde, A.L. (2013), ‘A Challenge to the Danish Welfare-State. How International Retirement Migration and Transnational Health-Promotion Clash with National Policies’ in Blaakilde, A.L. and Nilsson, G. (eds), Nordic Seniors on the Move, Lund: Lunds Universitet. pp. 175–200.Google Scholar
Blaakilde, A.L. and Nilsson, G. (2013), ‘Introduction. Mobility and Migration in Later Life’, in Blaakilde, A.L. and Nilsson, G. (eds), Nordic Seniors on the Move, Lund: Lunds Universitet. pp. 9–25.Google Scholar
Benson, M. and O'Reilly, K. (2009), ‘Migration and the search for a better way of life: a critical exploration of lifestyle migration’, The Sociological Review, 57, 4, 608–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonoli, G. (1997), ‘Classifying welfare states: A two-dimension approach’, Journal of Social Policy, 26, 3, 351–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casado-Díaz, M.A. (2006), ‘Retiring to Spain: An Analysis of Differences among Northern European Nationals’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32, 8, 1321–1339.Google Scholar
Casado-Díaz, M.A. and Rodríguez, V. (2002), ‘La Migración Internacional de Retirados en España. Limitaciones de las fuentes de información’, Estudios Geográficos, LXIII, 533–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cromartie, J. and Nelson, P. (2009), ‘Baby Boom Migration and Its Impact on Rural America’, Economic Research Report 79, US Dpt. Of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.Google Scholar
Domínguez Mujica, J. and Parreño Castellano, J.M. (2014), ‘Trabajadores y retirados. La flexible condición de los migrantes del oeste y norte de Europa en los destinos turísticos de España’, Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, 64, 65–80.Google Scholar
Durán, R. (2012), ‘Atractivo de España para los jubilados europeos: del turismo a la gerontoinmigración’, Panorama Social, 16: 151–165.Google Scholar
Dwyer, P. and Papadimitriou, D. (2006), ‘The Social Security Rights of Older International Migrants in the European Union’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32, 8, 1301–1319.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Ferrera, M. (1996), ‘The “Southern” model of welfare in social Europe’, Journal of European Social Policy, 6, 1, 17–37.Google Scholar
Hall, K. and Hardill, I. (2016), ‘Retirement migration, the ‘other’ story: caring for frail elderly British citizens in Spain’, Ageing and Society, 36, 3, 562–585.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. (2014), ‘We Gained a Lot Over What We Would Have Had’: The Geographic Arbitrage of North American Lifestyle Migrants to Cuenca, Ecuador, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40, 12, 1953–1971.Google Scholar
Huete, R. and Mantecón, A. (2011), ‘Más allá del turismo: movilidad residencial europea y nuevos núcleos urbanos’, Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, 56, 111–128.Google Scholar
Huete, R. and Mantecón, A. (2013), ‘La migración residencial de noreuropeos en España’, Convergencia. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 61, 219–245.Google Scholar
Gavanas, A. and Calzada, I. (2015), ‘Swedish retiree migrants in Spain: mobility and elderly care in Ageing Europe’, in Palenga-Möllenbeck, and Kilkey, (eds.) Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility, London: Palgrave. pp. 237–260.Google Scholar
Gavanas, A. and Calzada, I. (2016), ‘Multiplex migration and axes of precarization: Swedish retirement migrants to Spain and their service providers’, Critical Sociology, 42, 7–8, 1003–1016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giner, J., Hall, K. and Betty, C. (2016), ‘Back to Brit: retired British migrants returning from Spain’’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42, 5, 797–815.Google Scholar
Giner, J. and Simó, C. (2009), ‘El Retorno de los Retirados Europeos: Estudio sobre la Marina Alta’, in Mazón, T., Huete, R. and Mantecón, A. (eds) Turismo, Urbanización y Estilos de Vida, Barcelona: Icaria. pp. 383–398.Google Scholar
Jeppsson Grassman, E. and Taghizadeh Larsson, A. (2013), ‘Like coming home. The role of the Church of Sweden for migrating senior Swedes’, in Blaakilde, A.L. and Nilsson, G. (eds) Nordic Seniors on the Move, Lund: Lunds Universitet. pp.127–151.Google Scholar
Jurdao, F. and Sánchez, M. (1990), España: Asilo de Europa (Spain: Asylum of Europe), Barcelona: Planeta.Google Scholar
Karisto, A. (2013), ‘Coping with Antinomies of Taste. Eating habits of Finish Retirement Migrants in Spain’, in Blaakilde, A.L. and Nilsson, G. (eds) Nordic Seniors on the Move, Lund: Lunds Universitet. pp.75–99.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. and Palme, J. (1998), ‘The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and Poverty in the Western Countries’, American Sociological Review, 63, 661–87.Google Scholar
Haas, H. (2013), ‘Volunteering in retirement migration: meanings and functions of charitable activities for older British residents in Spain’, Ageing & Society, 33, 8, 1374–1400.Google Scholar
Haug, B., Dann, G. and Mehmetoglu, M. (2007), ‘Little Norway in Spain. From Tourism to Migration’, Annals of Tourism Research, 34, 1, 202–222.Google Scholar
Jensen, P. H. and Lolle, H. (2013), ‘The Fragmented Welfare State: Explaining Local Variations in Services for Older People’, Journal of Social Policy, 42, 2, 349–370.Google Scholar
Legido-Quigley, H. and McKee, M. (2012), ‘Health and social fields in the context of lifestyle migration’, Health & Place, 18, 1209–1216.Google Scholar
Leibfriedss, S. (1992), ‘Towards a European welfare state?’, in Pierson, C. and Castles, F.G. (eds) The Welfare State Reader, Cambridge: Polity Press. pp. 190–207.Google Scholar
Longino, C.F. and Bradley, D.E. (2005), ‘Internal and International Migration’. In Binstock, R.H. and George, L.K. (eds) Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, Burlington, USA: Academic Press. pp. 76–90.Google Scholar
Moreno-Fuentes, J. (2015), ‘Challenges and Reforms of Long-.term care policies in Spain’, in Pino, Del (ed.) Coping with New Social Risk in Norway and Spain: Long-term care, gender and family, and labour market and unemployment protection policies, Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar
Nudrali, O. and O'Reilly, K. (2009), ‘Taking the risk: The British in Didim, Turkey’, in Benson, M. and O'Reilly, K. (eds) Lifestyle Migration: Expectations, Aspirations and Experiences, Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 137–152.Google Scholar
Oliver, C. (2011), ‘Lifestyle migration’, in Betts, A. (ed.) Global Migration Governance, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 133–152.Google Scholar
Oliver, C. and O'Reilly, K. (2010), ‘A Bourdieusian Analysis of Class and Migration: Habitus and the Individualizing Process’, Sociology, 44, 49–65.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, K. (2007), ‘Intra-European migration and the mobility–enclosure dialectic’, Sociology, 41, 2, 277–293.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, V., Fernández-Mayoralas, G. and Rojo, F. (2004), ‘International retirement migration: Retired Europeans living on the Costa del Sol, Spain’, Population Review, 43, 1, 1–36.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, V., Huber, A. and Casado-Díaz, M.A. (2000), ‘Impactos de los retirados europeos en la costa española’, Ofrim suplementos, 7, 117–138.Google Scholar
Sharma, A. (2015), ‘Appreciating migration flows for health/social services planning: A case study of older adults leaving from New York to Florida’, Applied Geography, 62, 85–96.Google Scholar
Woube, A. (2013), ‘Transnational voluntarism among senior Swedish migrants on Costa del Sol in Spain’, in Blaakilde, and Nilsson, (eds) Nordic Seniors on the Move, Lund: Lunds Universitet. pp. 153–174.Google Scholar
Zasada, I., Alves, S., Müller, F.C., Piorr, A., Berges, R. and Bell, S. (2010), ‘International retirement migration in the Alicante region, Spain: process, spatial pattern and environmental impacts’, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 53, 1, 125–141.Google Scholar