Anthony Warnes

Northern European retired residents in nine southern European areas: characteristics, motivations and adjustment

During the last two decades, northern European retirement residence in the southern European sunbelt has grown strongly and its forms have rapidly changed, but standard demographic and social statistical sources provide no information about the flows, the migrants or their increasingly mobile and complex residential patterns. Considerable primary research has however recently been undertaken into the causes, conditions, experiences and consequences of international retirement migration (IRM) by investigators from Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Many collaborated when designing their studies and instruments, and all have subsequently worked together in a European Science Foundation Scientific Network. This paper compares the findings of six systematic social surveys in (to be more precise than the title) eight regions of southern Europe and the Canary Islands: all that have tackled similar research questions with similar methods and instruments. It presents interpretations of several comparative tables compiled from their original data, with a focus on the socio-economic backgrounds, motivations and behaviour of the various migrant groups and their relationship with the host and home countries. The paper presents new findings about the typical and variant forms of IRM, and additional understanding of the heterogeneity of the retirees of different nations and in the several regions.

The diversity and welfare of older migrants in Europe

This paper sets the scene and provides a conceptual framework for the articles in this special issue. They present the findings of research on European residents who have reached or are on the threshold of old age and whose current circumstances have been strongly influenced by a migration across an international border. Such ‘older migrants’ are scattered throughout Europe and they have especially diverse characteristics. They include some of the most deprived and socially excluded, and some of the most affluent and accomplished, but all to a greater or lesser extent are disadvantaged through an interaction between social policies and their ‘otherness’ by living in a foreign country. Some claim attention through the severity of their unmet health and welfare needs and poor capacity to access advice and treatment, while the affluent groups are of great interest to social gerontology because of their enterprising, developmental and positive approaches to old age. They include among the most innovative of the latest generation of older people, who pursue new combinations of family responsibilities, leisure pursuits and income generation. The paper proposes that the concept ‘human capital’ summarises variations in preparedness for old age, that is, the resources by which people cope with demands for income, roles, treatment, care and support. A typology of the ‘welfare position’ of international migrants in contemporary Europe is presented.

Older Migrants in Europe: A New Focus for Migration Studies

This article introduces the eight papers in this collection, all of which arose from the deliberations and research projects of the members of a European Science Foundation Scientific Network. The thematic focus is the intersection of migration and personal ageing. The article has three aims and themes, the first being to provide a summary account of the diversity of older migrants in contemporary Europe. A key distinction is between older people who migrate, and former labour migrants and those who accompanied them who have ‘aged in place’. Both groups have attracted innovative research since the early 1990s. Other ‘aged migrant trajectories’, such as those of return labour migrants and those who move internationally in late-life to live near or with close relatives for support and care, have received much less attention, a lacuna that some of the papers in this issue begin to correct. The second aim is to synthesise the principal personal, societal and welfare implications of the growing number of ‘older migrants’ across Europe, emphasising that there are both similarities and surprising differences amongst diverse groups of migrants. Finally, the individual papers will be introduced; in so doing, the design and methodological challenges of research on the variant groups will be drawn out. Raising understanding of the motivations of migration in old age, and even more of the inter-related consequences of migration and ageing, requires longitudinal, biographical or lifecourse perspectives. While such a research agenda is both stimulating and theoretically and empirically fruitful, it also implies profound practical research challenges.

Evictions and Prolonged Homelessness

This paper examines the connections between homelessness among older people and both evictions by statutory housing providers and repossessions by mortgage institutions. The evidence is from 45 single homeless people (among 313 in a succession of ethnographic studies) who reported that eviction made a contribution to their homelessness. Using preceding states and events as criteria, a taxonomy of these once-evicted older homeless people is proposed. For the majority, eviction followed a protracted failure to meet their financial obligations or to keep their property in good condition, and for many, mental health problems or exceptionally low competence in basic domestic skills were contributory factors. The experiences of the group strongly suggest that homelessness can be prevented if support is provided to vulnerable people as difficulties mount. Six risk factors for eviction and subsequent homelessness are identified, and the paper concludes that these markers could be used in experiments to recognise marginally housed people and as a primary prevention measure for homelessness.

Homelessness among older people and service responses

This paper reviews the limited evidence on the causes of homelessness in old age and on the circumstances and problems of older homeless people, and it describes the few services dedicated to the group. Health care and social care professionals rarely encounter homelessness among the many problems of older people that present to them, but in many developed countries there is evidence that the number of older homeless people has recently been growing. Some among them have been homeless intermittently or continuously for years, but many became homeless for the first time in later life. The reasons for becoming homeless and the problems and needs of the group are exceptionally diverse. Many have been estranged from their family or have no living relatives, and they have a high prevalence of health problems and functional limitations. Although services for homeless people in general have improved since the early 1990s, few have targeted the needs of older people.

Cities and Elderly People: Recent Population and Distributional Trends

This paper reviews recent elderly population trends in the towns and metropolitan areas of Great Britain with particular attention to changing age-group and spatial distributions housing amenities and long-term illness. The principal source is the decennial population census although some information is drawn from a new survey of elderly people in South East England....There are two overall objectives; to establish trends in the relative representation of elderly people (in different age-groups) in Britains cities and their constituent zones; and to examine the location and living arrangements of the oldest age-groups. (EXCERPT)

The outcomes of rehousing older homeless people: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT Older people who become homeless have attracted increasing attention in North America, Western Europe and Australia over the last 20 years, but there have been few projects dedicated to their support, and even fewer studies of the outcomes. This paper reports a longitudinal study of the resettlement of 64 older people who were rehoused into permanent accommodation from homeless peoples hostels in England. Their progress was monitored for two years by face-to-face interviews. The theoretical model was that the outcomes of rehousing are a function of personal factors and behaviour, the support that people receive, and the characteristics of the new home. After 24 months, 28 respondents were housed and ‘settled’, 10 were housed but ‘unsettled’, 11 had abandoned their accommodation, and six had been evicted (nine had died or ceased contact). The factors that significantly associated with remaining housed and settled included: previous stable accommodation histories, revived contacts with relatives, taking up activities, and regular help from housing-support workers. Unsettledness and tenancy failure associated with prolonged prior homelessness, worries about living independently, and continuing contacts with homeless people. Rehousing older homeless people successfully is difficult, particularly among those with long histories of homelessness and instability, and more needs to be known about the types of accommodation and the types of support that promote tenancy sustainment.

RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF OLDER HOMELESS PEOPLE : The effectiveness and limitations of British services

The article examines why the statutory and voluntary- (non-profit) sector services in Britain do not fully meet the needs of vulnerable older people or prevent homelessness among them. Britain has a relatively comprehensive welfare safety net for vulnerable people, and since the early 1990s central government has taken a more directive and strategic role in the development of services specifically for homeless people. As a result, service provision has greatly expanded, diversified and specialized, but nonetheless, many older people still become and remain homeless. An underlying reason is that there is a gap between the behaviour of some very vulnerable people and the general assumption of the welfare state services that people in need will request help. Some older people, through mental health problems, alienation or apathy, do not ask for help, and the lack of a duty among most statutory services to ‘seek out’ unmet needs means that this group is neglected. Outreach work or active case finding is not normally undertaken by mainstream health and housing providers, while its provision by voluntary organizations has until recently been limited to the largest cities. Moreover, government policies and many homeless services target the needs of young homeless people, and consequently the organization and ‘culture’ of many homeless services are unsuited to the problems and needs of older homeless people. The article concludes with a discussion of the uncertain future for services for older homeless people in Britain.

The Causes of Homelessness Among Older People in England

A comparative study of the causes of new episodes of homelessness among people aged 50 years and over has been undertaken in Boston, Massachusetts, Melbourne, Australia and four English cities. This paper presents the findings from England, where information was collected from 131 respondents and their key-workers about the circumstances and problems that contributed to homelessness. Two-thirds of the respondents had never been homeless before. The many reasons why they became homeless involved interactions between personal disadvantages and weaknesses, negative events and inadequate welfare support services. For some, their behaviour rather than external factors triggered homelessness. Other cases involved deficiencies with the administration of services and social security payments, the failure or limitations of agencies to detect and respond effectively to vulnerability, and poor collaboration or information co-ordination among housing providers and welfare agencies.

Care services for frail older people in South Korea

This paper examines the changed social circumstances of older people in South Korea and specifically the increased need for formal health and social services for those who are frail and have no informal carers. The article begins with a summary account of the countrys exceptionally rapid demographic, economic and social transformations, which demonstrates a widening gap between the populations expectations and needs, and health and social service provision. It then examines the recently initiated and now burgeoning welfare programmes, with particular attention to health and social services for sick and frail older people. Most extant care services are accessed mainly by two minorities: the very poor and the rich. The dominant policy influence of physicians and a history of conflict between traditional and western medicine probably underlies the low current priority for ‘care’ as opposed to ‘cure’, as also for the management of chronic conditions and rehabilitation. Neither long-term care services nor personal social services are well developed. There is a marked disparity between the acute services, which are predominantly provided by private sector organisations in a highly competitive market and broadly achieve high standards, and public primary care and rudimentary residential services. The latter are weakly regulated and there are many instances of low standards of care.