Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This chapter elaborates the book’s central research question. The current state-of-the art in return migration theory holds that ‘geographically single’ male migrants who are retired or economically inactive will be among the most likely candidates for return to countries of origin in older age. However, the behaviour of the population to which this book is devoted – older North and West African men living in migrant worker hostels in France – is puzzling in this respect. The men’s preference for regular back-and-forth circulation over definitive return to wives and children in places of origin calls into question the current state-of-the-art. Firstly, the hostel residents’ behaviour challenges the assumptions of the ‘myth of return’ literature, which explains non-return on the basis of family localisation. Secondly, the men’s behaviour is puzzling insofar as it is irrational from a neo-classical economics perspective. The men remain unmoved by the financial incentives of a return homewards, where their French state pensions would have far greater purchasing power. The paradox of non-return becomes yet more unexpected when one considers the cramped accommodation, ill-adapted to the needs of older people, in which the men elect to grow old, as shown in the photo essay which concludes the chapter.

This chapter situates the late-in-life mobility of hostel residents in its geographical, historical, and theoretical contexts. As noted in Chap. , the vast majority of hostel residents hail from France’s former colonies in North and West Africa. Section charts the geography and history of migration from these areas. Section pursues the historical theme by elaborating how France’s migrant worker hostel accommodation came into being in the late 1950s and subsequently developed. While originally envisaged for a young working-age population, the migrant hostels now host an ageing cohort of men who, defying expectation, do not return definitively to their families at retirement. Section sketches four distinct theoretical frameworks which have the potential to explain this counter-intuitive behaviour: these are the new economics of labour migration, structuralism, transnationalism, and social systems theory. Section concludes the chapter with a discussion of the methodological implications which follow from the study’s focus on explaining hostel residents’ late-in-life mobility.

This chapter marks the start of the book’s empirical analysis, focusing on the theme of ‘paperwork’. Administrative tasks have a bearing on return decisions at retirement in several significant ways. Papers need to be in order when finalising one’s pension arrangements and accessing other forms of social protection. In all of these paperwork scenarios a key finding emerges, namely that the legal requirements of welfare state inclusion place significant temporal and territorial demands on hostel residents, a process which is labelled ‘timetabling’. In other words, hostel residents are required to be in certain places at certain times, or for certain durations of time. While the temporal and territorial ‘rules of access’ which pertain to these contexts are applicable to all citizens, migrants and non-migrants alike, it is argued in Sect. that certain ‘non-standard’ elements of migrant workers’ biographies lead to systemic disadvantage vis-à-vis non-migrant populations. These non-standard biographical features are primarily manifested in administrative documentation, including mis-transcribed names, discarded proofs of entitlement, ‘sharing’ of social security numbers, inaccurate or conflicting dates of birth, untraceable former employers, and later entry into the workforce. Critically these biographical features only become significant at retirement, lending credence to the idea that retirement is a critical juncture in hostel residents’ lives.

This chapter focuses on health-related factors as a rationale for preferring back-and-forth migration over return at retirement. For some respondents being in health was a prerequisite for coming to France in the first place, given the rigorous recruitment practices which prioritised physical strength and conditioning. Later in life, health again orders migration, but this time it is the fact of health which dictates some people’s trips to France, in order to receive healthcare. Hostel residents do not differ markedly from the rest of the elderly population in France as regards health conditions. What does distinguish them however is their earlier onset of health problems. As a consequence many hostel residents have, over the years, developed strong relationships of trust in French medical services. Maintaining inclusion in the French healthcare system is therefore an important priority for older hostel residents, and one which timetables their trips to France. Just as was found in Chap. , the men’s ‘non-standard’ biographies have a bearing on their interactions with healthcare providers. As discussed in Sect. , non-standard biographical features include premature ageing due to difficult working conditions and work accidents; language barriers in the patient-carer relationship; and lack of family entourage to provide informal care, meaning that an extra duty of care falls upon formal providers.

This chapter marks a shift in orientation from the French context of the hostel residents’ lives to the context of the place of origin, looking firstly at relationships with ‘left behind’ family members relations before proceeding in Chap. to the questions of reintegration and hometown development. Section underlines how fundamental family ties are for respondents, as manifested in their remittance sending practices: it was the dream of family prosperity and financial security which spurred their emigration in the first place. The French government’s migrant worker hostel policy itself was designed to facilitate such transfers: by keeping rents low, the men were able to send as much money as possible back home, thereby discouraging family reunification. Unexpectedly, as documented in Sect. , the families of some hostel residents remain dependent on remittances even following the emigrant’s retirement, leading to prolonged stays in France in order to claim certain social security benefits which are subject to a minimum period of residence being observed. However, the long period of exile can lead to loss of influence within the family, leading to family conflicts and sometimes changes in patriarchal gender norms. Remittance dependency and family conflicts are amplified by advances in telecommunications technology: low-cost fixed and mobile telephony has resulted in greater “pressure of communicability”, as detailed in Sect. .

This chapter unpacks the processes of re-integration which retired hostel residents confront during their periods of residence in communities of origin. Re-integration occurs above all in economic, political and normative spheres. In order to capture these re-integration processes, a conceptual framework based on the notion of ‘bearings’ is introduced. The concept of bearings does useful analytical work by highlighting two spheres in which re-integration takes place. Firstly, bearings may be physical in the sense of having influence over one’s physical surroundings in places of origin, via housebuilding and construction of key infrastructure such as clinics, wells and schools, as is discussed in Sects. and . Secondly, there is a social aspect to bearings, encompassing a person’s standing and behaviour in a given social context, as explored in Sect. . A key finding is that physical and social bearings are mutually reinforcing: the lack of social capital evinced by North African hostel residents is one reason for the difficulties they encountered in constructing a place back home after retirement, whereas my respondents in the village of Dembancané (Senegal) were able to contribute to the town’s infrastructural development because of their social embeddedness, cemented by their years of participation in the Dembancané hometown association.

This chapter documents how hostel residents approach physical frailty and the end of life. Their back-and-forth trips can continue only so long as the men are in a fit state to travel: eventually, ill-health and/or loss of autonomy force the men to choose where to live out their days. Sect. considers the possibility of returning home. While some returns in a situation of reduced autonomy are voluntary, others are occasioned by elements of constraint. The various options available for those who would remain in France are unappealing. Section covers the possibility of remaining in the hostel to receive care and assistance for everyday tasks. However, in terms of facilities and architectural layout, many hostels remain an unsuitable environment for older people with advanced dependency. Section turns to the option of bringing a relative (usually the spouse) to France to care for an individual with reduced autonomy. Due to hardening immigration policies this often proves unfeasible. A further possibility is to move into a French care home (Sect. ). Yet to enter a dedicated residential care home is to renounce the residents’ remittance sending role, given that the fees charged are so high. Finally, Sect. discusses return mobility at the very end of life, encompassing not only ‘last-minute’ returns but also the widespread practice of posthumous repatriation (Sect. ). Returning home to die means that an individual can be assured of a funeral in accordance with the proper religious rites.

The book concludes by offering an answer to the guiding question of why the hostel residents prefer back-and-forth mobility over definitive return at retirement. Given the limited explanatory value of the arguments from neoclassical economics and family localisation, an assessment is made of the rival theories which were proposed: the new economics of labour migration, structuralism, transnationalism and social systems theory. In the light of the findings of Chaps. , , , , and , no one theory adequately accounts for all the phenomena observed: at various points in the data there is support for different theories. Nonetheless, it is argued that Luhmann’s theory of social systems has the greatest potential for fruitful application in the future, since it offers a radically fresh perspective on why people migrate and the structure of the society into which they integrate. This insight is developed by applying an innovative systems theoretic approach to an idea which features prominently in migration research, including in the title to this book, namely the concept of ‘home’. Building on conventional conceptions of home predicated on bonds to social group or territory, it is argued that to be ‘at home’ can also mean upholding claims to be ‘included’ in different social systems. This argument is particularly salient in light of a recent policy measure offering a guaranteed monthly income to hostels residents who return to countries of origin, and the book’s final section considers the prospects for this legislation and the ageing residents which it targets.