Housing, aged care and migration: the housing careers of older Chinese migrants and its implications

Li, Wendy Wen (2011) Housing, aged care and migration: the housing careers of older Chinese migrants and its implications. In: Proceedings of the 9th Asia/Oceania Regional Congress of Geriatrics and Gerontology. p. 316. From: 9th Asia / Oceania Congress of Geriatrics and Gerontology, 23-27 October 2011, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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Abstract

This paper builds on the Confucian concept of filial piety to explore housing experiences of older Chinese migrants who move to New Zealand in their later life. In the Chinese culture, filial piety refers to the traditions of respect, reverence, care, obedience, and fulfilling duty to one's parents. Traditionally, co-residence with one's parents has been paramount in practicing filial piety. Family members are expected to reside under the same roof, and adult children have obligations to share resources and look after aged parents. Using the concept of housing career which is concerned with the succession of dwellings occupied by individuals over their lives, this paper focuses on the homeownership of older Chinese migrants and their housing trajectories by investigating their living arrangements. Participants include 32 older Chinese migrants who took part in three interviews between April 2008 and September 2009. Results reveal that the participants owned their homes in China before they migrated to New Zealand. None of the participants however acquired homeownerships in New Zealand after migration, although a majority of them still retained their homeownerships in China. The findings also reveal that older Chinese migrants' housing trajectories moved from parent-adult children co-residence towards filial piety at a distance where children practiced filial piety and offered support to their ageing parents at a distance instead of co-residence. For older Chinese migrants, housing career is a process through which they tackle challenges and adapt changes, caused by migration and ageing. The findings suggest that there is a need for policy makers and service providers to understand the housing career of older Chinese migrants through the perspective of transnationalism and to place more attention to interpreting the issues of migrant housing and aged care through the cultural lenses of those concerned.

Item ID: 19152
Item Type: Conference Item (Poster)
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Date Deposited: 16 Feb 2012 02:34
FoR Codes: 17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES > 1701 Psychology > 170102 Developmental Psychology and Ageing @ 50%
17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES > 1701 Psychology > 170113 Social and Community Psychology @ 50%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9205 Specific Population Health (excl. Indigenous Health) > 920502 Health Related to Ageing @ 50%
92 HEALTH > 9205 Specific Population Health (excl. Indigenous Health) > 920503 Health Related to Specific Ethnic Groups @ 50%
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