Old and Dangerous: Bordering Older Migrants’ Mobilities, Rejuvenating the Post-Welfare State

Abstract

Caught in the cross-hairs of perceived crises of aging populations, increasing migration flows, and social welfare sustainability, older migrants are often not welcome in post-welfare states. Employing a feminist border analysis, Canada’s relatively generous immigration policies on parent and grandparent entry are analyzed to show the ways in which older people’s mobilities are bordered, who is most affected, and why this bordering is worthy of attention. We show links between these policies and Canada’s national rejuvenation project that aims to externalize and privatize both the costs and labor of social reproduction, limiting state contributions.

Temporariness and Post-Migration Adaptation of Older Migrants: The Case of Chinese Grandparenting Migrants in Singapore

“…Countries that use a managed migration approach, such as a points-based system, regard aging parents, and grandparents as potential burdens on their society's scarce resources and, therefore, tend to limit their pathways to permanent residency and family reunification (Ho and Chiu 2022). Older migrants are often issued traveling visas for temporary visits, even if they have adult children who have already migrated and settled in the host country (Belanger and Candi 2019; Braedley, Côté-Boucher, and Przednowek 2019). Such schemes, as Braedley, Côté-Boucher, and Przednowek (2019, 2) argue, “ignore cultural models of grandparenthood, including intergenerational care.” For older migrants and their families, the conditions of visa schemes and the waiting time for application outcomes are often sources of stress and anxiety (Belanger and Candi 2019; Stevens 2019).…”

“…Older migrants are often issued traveling visas for temporary visits, even if they have adult children who have already migrated and settled in the host country (Belanger and Candi 2019; Braedley, Côté-Boucher, and Przednowek 2019). Such schemes, as Braedley, Côté-Boucher, and Przednowek (2019, 2) argue, “ignore cultural models of grandparenthood, including intergenerational care.” For older migrants and their families, the conditions of visa schemes and the waiting time for application outcomes are often sources of stress and anxiety (Belanger and Candi 2019; Stevens 2019).…”

“…Although the scholarship on temporary migrants is burgeoning, extant studies in this area have typically focused on young temporary workers (Bauböck 2011), such as international students, graduate workers, working holiday makers (Robertson 2014), skilled migrants (Mayes 2017; Khoo, Hugo, and McDonald 2008), domestic workers (Lee and Piper 2017), guest workers (Griffith and Gleeson 2017), and refugees and asylum-seekers (Griffiths 2014). Until the recent emergence of research on transnational grandparents (Plaza 2000; Treas and Mazumdar 2002; Zhou 2012; King et al 2014; Tiaynen-Quadir 2016; Zickgraf 2017; Chiu and Ho 2020; Ho and Chiu 2020; Nedelcu and Wyss 2020), the situation of older temporary migrants has received scant attention. While studies on young migrant workers commonly reveal how restrictive immigration policies and temporary migration programs implemented by migrant-receiving states have shaped temporary migrant workers’ precariousness, exploitation, and limited social, economic, and political rights (Basok 2004; Dauvergne and Marsden 2014; Robertson 2014; Samuk 2020), we need to question how the intersection of aging, migration, and temporariness may accentuate the vulnerability of older temporary migrants.…”

Transnational ageing and “care technologies”: Chinese grandparenting migrants in Singapore and Sydney

“…Grandparents move abroad to help with childcare so that adult migrant parents can participate in the workforce of the immigration society and lower the costs of using paid childcare. Tightening family reunification policies in migrant‐receiving countries have made it increasingly challenging for grandparenting migrants to obtain long‐term residency rights and to access care resources as non‐citizens (e.g., health care and social welfare) (Braedley, Côté‐Boucher, & Przednowek, 2019; Deneva, 2012; Lunt, 2009; Treas, 2008). The policies regulating migration and settlement constitute what some scholars have termed as “migration regimes” (Ho, 2014; Kofman & Raghuram, 2006; Kiley & Merla, 2013; Zickgraf, 2016; Boucher & Gest, 2018).…”

Chinese grand(parenting) encourages a re‐imagining of Canada's immigration regime

“…Immigrants must earn their pathway to membership (citizenship) and entitlements to family reunification based on their perceived and demonstrated economic competencies (Akbar, 2022; Ellermann, 2020). This system undermines and makes invisible family class immigrants' non‐economic contributions in private spheres (Vanderplaat et al., 2012, p. 81) that “legitimate[s] social exclusions and inequalities” (Braedley et al., 2021; McLaren & Black, 2005, p. 4, 11). Canada, like many traditional immigrant‐receiving countries, primarily selects immigrants who bring net benefits that are higher than net costs (Skeldon, 2008).…”