Ageing Migrants and the Creation of Home: Mobility and the Maintenance of Transnational Ties

This paper combines two strands of literature that hitherto have often been kept separate in studies of ageing migrants: research in environmental gerontology on the one hand and work dealing with transnational migration on the other. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the understanding of the ways in which ageing migrants experience the notion of ‘home’, both as a location and a set of relationships that contribute to feelings of belonging and identity. The paper is based on 34 interviews with first-generation Turkish migrants living in inner-city districts of Brussels. The paper reviews the variety of ways in which ‘home’ is experienced and created, the constraints and environmental pressures which may prevent people from developing a sense of home, and the meaning of transnational ties and mobility for the experience of home.