AD-NET-CARE - Adaptive support networks for older migrants

Integration Department

Project head: Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka

Project coordination: Dr. Edward Omeni

Outpatient care is one of the most widely accepted care options for migrants in need of care, as it meets the desire of this group of people for family-centred care in a domestic setting. This means that new forms of housing, care and support are necessary. This includes family members, doctors, caregivers, but also friends and neighbours who support older people in everyday situations. They form a support network that can be mobilised as needed. International migration, work-related commuter mobility, lack of affordable and age-appropriate housing, financial and time pressures and psychological stress mean that families often have to choose between 'good care that is too expensive' and 'affordable care that is good enough', with their choices dependent on both legal regulation and the characteristics of the place of residence. Thus, the options for action are very different for big city dwellers and families in rural areas with low density of care and medical services. Especially in rural areas, telemedicine and other technology (ambient assisted living AAL) can be used complementarily in care and can be considered as part of such support networks. So far, however, there is a lack of research on how older migrants and their families organise care, whether they expand their support networks to include migrant caregivers, whether they have special needs in the field of (tele)medicine/AAL (and if so, whether these can be realised) or whether they resort to transnational networks and care or provision abroad. In view of these knowledge deficits, the project asks, among other things:

• the legal conditions for support networks, especially regarding the availability of migrant and technical assistance in care; - the importance of local contexts (population density, economic situation, material infrastructure) for the design of support networks;
• the reactions of support networks to changes in contextual conditions (legal regulation, availability of technology, migration/mobility, economic deprivation at the place of residence/financial situation of the family);
• the acceptance of technology in old age in the group of persons with a migration background and their family members;
• the decision-making process for certain network constellations (family, friends, neighbourhood, technology, migrant caregivers);
• the negotiations of intimacy in the support networks (between status, age and gender groups);
• the negotiation of gender roles within the networks, including with regard to care by men.

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Institutional funding)