Older Irish migrants living in London: identity, loss and return

Leavey, Gerard; Sembhi, Sati; Livingston, Gill

doi:10.1080/13691830410001699603

Cited by 47 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The literature on the Irish experience in Britain has revealed that most individuals migrated for economic reasons, although this generally co-existed with a 'pull' factor of desire to escape or change (Gmelch 1986(Gmelch , 1987Ryan 2004;Leavey et al 2004). …”

Section: Historical Overview Of Irish Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings are explained, at least to some extent, in terms of higher social adversity, migrant stress, social isolation, depression, loneliness and poor living conditions of the migrant populations. Focusing on the experiences of Irish migrants living in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century, the sociological literature has revealed high levels of social deprivation and poor health for Irish migrants, especially for men (Leavey et al 2004;Commander et al 1999;Harrison and Carr-Hill 1992;Mullen et al 1996;Pearson et al 1991;Cochrane and Bal 1989;Nazroo 1997). …”

Section: Psychic Costs Of (Return) Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The outflow was concentrated in the 15-24-year age category, and so emigration was a young person's pursuit. Also, most migrants left as single people (Leavey et al 2004). …”

Section: Historical Overview Of Irish Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants

Barrett

Mosca

2012

J Popul Econ

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Within the economics literature, the 'psychic costs' of migration have been incorporated into theoretical models since Sjaastad (J Polit Econ 70:80-93, 1962). However, the existence of such costs has rarely been investigated in empirical papers. In this paper, we look at the psychic costs of migration by using alcohol problems as an indicator. Rather than comparing immigrants and natives, we look at the native-born in a single country and compare those who have lived away for a period of their lives and those who have not. We use data from the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing which is a large, nationally representative sample of older Irish adults. We find that men who lived away are more likely to have suffered from alcohol problems than men who stayed. For women, we again see a higher incidence of alcohol problems for short-term migrants. However, long-term female migrants are less likely to have suffered from alcohol problems. For these women, it seems that migration provided psychic benefits, and this is consistent with findings from other research which showed how migration provided economic independence to this group. The results remain when we adjust for endogeneity and when we use propensity score matching methods.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

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Section: Historical Overview Of Irish Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Psychic Costs Of (Return) Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants

Barrett

Mosca

2012

J Popul Econ

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“…While it may be stretching a point to argue that the mass emigration of the 1950s had an equally traumatic effect on the collective Irish psyche, it is still an embedded memory that is invoked. Arguably exacerbating the traumatic effect is the collective memory not just of the hardships experienced by 1950s migrants in Britain, but also the hardships inflicted by life in 1950s Ireland, and the subsequent legacy of resentment and betrayal at the necessity of leaving (Leavey et al, 2004).…”

Section: Migration Collective Memory and The 1950smentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Emigrants in the Traditional Sense’? — Irishness in England, Contemporary Migration and Collective Memory of the 1950s

Scully

2015

Irish Journal of Sociology

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Invocations of the experiences of previous generations of Irish emigrants have been frequent in discussions of the current wave of Irish emigration. This paper considers the mediating effects of viewing contemporary migration through the prism of past migrations. In particular, it is argued that the ‘postmemory’ of 1950s emigration from Ireland, and the experiences of Irish migrants in English cities, forms a transnational dominant narrative, against which the experiences of contemporary migrants are rhetorically arranged. Drawing on interview and focus group extracts from a study of Irish ‘authenticity’ in England, the paper demonstrates how subsequent generations of migrants, and those of Irish descent construct a collective memory of the 1950s experience. It also discusses how this narrative appears in Irish governmental discourses as a conveniently usable past, that seeks to emphasise the agency of contemporary migrants, and in so doing alleviate state responsibility for emigration.

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“…Peterson-Veatch 1999), or both ethnicity and migration (as in e.g. Leavey et al 2004), as will be discussed below.…”

Section: Ethnicity Migration or Both With An Interest In Old(er) Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Identity, Old(er) Age and Migrancy : A Social Constructionist Len

Machat-From¹

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Identity research in relation to ethnicity and migration has tended to focus on younger people whilst identity research in relation to ageing and old(er) age has not focused on migrants. This inadvertent mutual neglect has led to a lack of identity research that examines the identity categories of old(er) age and migrancy together, a lacuna that this dissertation aims to redress. This dissertation departs from a social constructionist understanding of identity as situationally accomplished in the interplay between how one defines oneself (internally) and how others define one (externally). The questions raised by this perspective and addressed in this dissertation are: When (in what situations) and in relation to whom do old(er) age and migrancy (respectively) seem to become meaningful for identification? How do the identity categories of old(er) age and migrancy seem to be negotiated? The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with 24 older migrants (13 men, 11 women) aged between 55 and 79 who have been living in Sweden for 18 to 61 years. Interviewees come from 12 different countries that vary in perceived cultural distance from Sweden. The findings suggest that identifications with old(er) age and migrancy seem to be dynamic and flexible rather than necessarily permanently meaningful, thus gaining meaning in specific situations and in relation to particular Others. External definitions furthermore do not always seem to match with internal ones. Regardless of how old(er) age and migrancy are constructed, they seem to be negotiable. This dissertation thus contributes to identity research by studying old(er) age and migrancy together and furthermore sheds light onto how the social constructionist lens allows us to see variability where stability otherwise would be presumed.

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Older Irish migrants living in London: identity, loss and return

Cited by 47 publications

References 19 publications

The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants

The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants

‘Emigrants in the Traditional Sense’? — Irishness in England, Contemporary Migration and Collective Memory of the 1950s

Identity, Old(er) Age and Migrancy : A Social Constructionist Len

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