Caring (in) Diaspora: Aging and Caring Experiences of Older Turkish Migrants in a Swedish Context

摘要: This thesis investigates Turkish migrants’ aging experiences and their understandings about care by concentrating on the accounts of a group first-generation immigrants who settled in Sweden late 1960s early 1970s. The aim is to explore how older immigrants’ lives have been marked experience migration re-establishment another country, impact having once lost caring relations affected decisions desires old age. study examines some common patterns host ideals age, encounters with medical institutions, interpretations formal facilities, identity community construction processes. Rather than generalizing categorizing cultural, ethnic, or even religious expectations case elderly care, it seeks grasp complexity focusing positions they take diaspora space. based ethnographic research which extended over two years (2011–2013). empirical material consisted observations semistructured in-depth interviews 20 people, 10 women men, live Sweden. By stories, highlights importance looking at previous being cared for deliberation future needs expectations. elucidating people understand facilities such as home-help services homes, underlines ambivalent attitudes towards these options. ambivalence anchored ways perceiving “the Swedish” modern but uncaring well family members others. also shows imagined done through three emotions: merhamet (compassion/pity), vefa (loyalty/ faithfulness), sefkat (concern/affection). Emotionalization not reinforcing, but, rather, negotiating filial duty parents. Of note that emotions circulate inside outside diasporic imagined. exploring understandings, this contributes growing field background. It critically assesses experiences, options, cultural differences are supposed be unchanging homogeneous, showing that, order possible migrants when comes crucial consider lived aged Designing, deliberating on, deconstructing particular become only if we experiential, mnemonic, relational meaning-making processes into account.