Ageing in Norrby - Experiences of Transition between Work and Retirement among Foreign Born Swedes

Transcription

1 1 Ageing in Norrby - Experiences of Transition between Work and Retirement among Foreign Born Swedes Erik Ljungar, Ph. D. in Sociology, University of Borås erik.ljungar@hb.se Stream: 5. Ageing at Work Abstract There is an ever increasing group of ageing people with a foreign background who reside in neighborhoods in many Swedish cities, characterized by segregation and social burdens. There are certain groups which came after their adult children at a relatively high age, which have inadequate or no knowledge in the Swedish language. But even among groups which have come as refugees and particularly among labor migrants, the elderly population is increasing. There is evidence that people with a foreign background, especially non-european background, experience alienation and exclusion in the labor market and in the Swedish society. When these people are nearing retirement and making important choices also aging can be expected to add a dimension that can give rise to existential problems and enhance the sense of identity loss. The purpose of this study is to achieve an understanding of how foreign-born experience and handling aging in a "Swedish" context is related to position and identity, after transition from working life to retirement life. Persons with a background primarily in southern Europe and the Middle East are interviewed. It appears that the experiences of exclusion and commitment to their own ethnic community increases after retirement. Contacts with persons in the Swedish majority society mainly experienced through working relations and especially in the workplace ceases. Thus some have after retirement developed strategies to find meaning in their life through relationships inside organizations such as PRO ( Pensionärernas riksförbund, Retired Persons National Association ) Introduction Sweden has an ever increasing ageing population. This is a common phenomenon throughout the Western world and other developed countries. One factor is the decreasing birthrate; another is the fact that people are healthier and lives longer. A problem is thus that people which must be supplied for after retirement is increasing relative to the working population. Sweden still has a birthrate which is higher than comparable western countries. There are mainly two reasons for this. First, Sweden has had a well-developed child care system. This has resulted in that the birth rate in Sweden, especially in a European perspective, is relatively high. Paternal leave is possible for both mothers and fathers during the child s early year of life. This encourages parents to get children. But another important factor is Sweden s generous immigration policy in comparison with other western countries. The birth rate is relatively high among immigrants, and immigrants are an important contributor to the labor market. But Sweden has its problems to. Especially in so called segregated areas many swedes with an immigrant background resides isolated from the rest of society. This is especially the case among so called anhörighetsinvandrare ( kin-immigrants ) who have arrived in Sweden at a relatively high age. In this case there are persons who have come after their children at relatively old age. But also among the group of so called labor immigrants

2 2 ( arbetskraftsinvandrare ), who came to Sweden during the 1950s and 1960s, many resides in so called segregated areas in Sweden s big and middle sized cities. There exists ageing communities with backgrounds in countries such as Greece, Former Yugoslavia, Chile and even Finland, where the retired persons for example lack skills in the Swedish language. In this study from an area called Norrby, which is located in Borås in South West of Sweden, a group of persons with an immigrant background will be interviewed. Borås is a city which during the 1950s and especially during the 1960s many labor migrants came to work in especially the garment- or textile industry. Persons with background in Greece, Former Yugoslavia and Finland arrived in large numbers. Many of these are today retired and live in so called million-program areas such as Norrby and Hässleholmen. But Borås even have been influenced by refugee immigration, waves of immigrants have arrived during the 1980s and 1990s and even today many immigrants arrive from countries such as Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. As is the case in other large and middle-sized cities in Sweden many persons with immigrant backgrounds lives in so called segregated areas, and it has been shown that segregation and isolation from the majority society is common among the different groups. People who have lived in Sweden for nearly 50 years still don t speak the Swedish language fully. Among the later arrived refugee immigrants a relatively large amount of kin immigrants have come after their children, even in these groups the isolation and dependence on their family relations are large. Theoretical Ramifications The theoretical ramifications used in this study are mainly two views from social or sociological theory: relationism and intersectionalism (Tilly, 1998; Ore, 2013). In studies of ageing three is often perspectives used that takes into consideration ageing as a partly biological process. But from a sociological point of view, the social or constructed images of ageing are important (Featherstone and Wernick, 1995). Ageing is just as is the case of gender, ethnicity and in some cases class, as important in understanding social relationships and identity formation among people. The focus in this study is threefold. First it is the importance of ageing in itself. To understand ageing as a social phenomenon there is important to understand not just individual experiences of a person s situation, but also to understand the surrounding society s images of ageing. Second it is persons cultural, or mere preferably; ethnic background, than the majority population that is important to take into consideration. From a relational perspective it is thus important not just to take the individuals personal perceptions or feelings about ageing, but probably more important it is to take into consideration the social environment in which the person lives. In the case of ethnicity a line of studies shows that persons with an immigrant background often are surrounded by stereotypes which influence their perception of themselves. For example the social construct of the invandrare ( immigrant ) often shares common properties in the view from the majority society. The third theme in this study is the transition from working life to retirement life. Even in this case it is important to take into consideration the social construct of the Retired person

3 3 contra the Working person. Sweden is a society where work often is seen as an important part of a person s identity. When a person gets retired she is no longer a working person and therefore loses an important part of her identity. But it is not just the social dimension which changes when a person get retired. Even the economical (or class) situation changes. In a way retirement is a form of declassification. A person loses both her work and her income level shrinks often dramatically. This of course influences the person s entire situation. Another important factor is the social relationships a person has in the workplace. Especially in the case for persons with an immigrant background the workplace is where they meet people from the majority society, and therefor becomes integrated in some manner. When leaving working life many of these relationships wither or ceases. Tilly (1998) is an important contributor to the relational perspective. He argues that society is always divided between those who have access to economic and power resources, and those who do not have these resources. The person who lacks this access even becomes exploited. He shows that this is a general phenomenon, and means that factors such as ethnicity, gender and of course class often are used as categories that sort people into different groups. In the case of immigrants they are used as a working force in sectors where Swedish labor power is hard to get. For example during the 1960s Sweden has large labor immigration, were the persons who came often where used as a workforce in the expanding industries. Tilly s relational and categorical concepts can thus even be used on the retired population. The workforce who gets retired is of course leaving the labor market, but they still lives on the money they earned during their working life in form of pensions. But the retired people are controlled by the authorities, which have the power to change the pension system through different policies. But there even exists other structural factors that influence the outcomes. One such factor is the circumstance that persons with an immigrant background often have worked fewer years than inborn swedes, and therefore gets a lower pension. Another important factor is that persons with an immigrant background often are forced to work in sectors with a relatively lower wage, which also influences the pensions. People with an immigrant background as a category often meet social restrictions from the majority society. In the case of Sweden studies shows that especially people who lives in so called segregated areas lacks relationships with persons from the majority population. The only places where they meet and interact with persons from the majority population are in the workplaces. It is here important to ad that retired people generally loses many connections with the majority society, but in the case of both ageing and have an immigrant background can be expected to lead to increasing isolation in a double meaning. Method In this study 9 people have been interviewed (Three will be more interviews, at least 12), 4 women and five men. They have their backgrounds in former Yugoslavia, Greece, Hungary and Iran. There are both persons, who came during the 1960s as labor force immigrants, and persons that can be characterized as refugee immigrants that arrived in the end of the 1980s

4 4 and beginning of the 1990s. They all have working experience of the Swedish labor market, but also from their home countries. The persons who came during the 1960s have experience from the garment- or textile industry in Borås, the people who came later has mainly worked in the service sector, both public and private. The interviews took between 45 minutes and 1 our and an half. The method used was open thematic interviews in the form of conversations. The interviewees were allowed to put into their own words their experiences without much influence from the interviewer. The method used is founded in phenomenological sociology and life world analysis (Aspers, 2011; Dahlberg, Dahlberg and Nyström, 2008). Result One shared experience among the interviewees was that get retired means an economic loss which is substantial. They told that they more than halved their income from that they had as employees. One exception is a woman, with her roots in Hungary, who had worked as selfemployed. She have chosen to keep on working as an small business owner, and have therefore more money left today because she can add her pensions to her income from her business activity. It was especially the persons who had arrived as refugee immigrants during the 1980s and early 1990s that emphasized the importance of income loss after retirement. They told that their relatively short period of actually working had resulted in a lower pension. For example folkpension ( general pension ) is dependent on the years one has worked in the Swedish Labor market. They meant that they were dependent on their children for economic support to manage rents and other basic life circumstances. Among the persons who had arrived in Sweden as labor force immigrants during the 1960s, they meant that they could manage but not much more. One finding from the interviews was that almost all of the persons saw work as a meaningful activity. But even here there are some differences between the refugee immigrants and the labor force immigrants. The former complained that they had not found work that was in compliance with their skills and education. But among the labor force immigrants this has not been such a big problem. What work means are for all the interviewees in this study is that it gave them a livelihood. To use welfare ( socialbidrag ) was not in question, not for any of the interviewees. But work is not only a way to get an income, but is also important for one s general satisfaction in life. Especially the social interactions in the workplaces were according to all the persons interviewed important. One of the persons in this study is self-employed; she runs a small business in the service sector. But even for her the interactions with other persons; i.e. her customers, both from the Swedish majority society and persons with immigrant background, is important. She has

5 5 stayed working in her business after retirement, partly for economic reasons, but also to maintain the relationships just mentioned. The theme for this study is thus to investigate the feelings persons with immigrant background has before, during/direct after and today of the retirement phenomena. Some of the interviewees become ill during working life and practiced early retirement. One important finding is that for some of the interviewees they had great problems to accept this. They wanted to stay at work as long as they could; in some cases until a doctor or employer ordered them to leave work. The worst part of retirement was the period direct after. Some of the persons told that they still dreamt that they went to their workplace. Others in fact visited their workplace after retirement, and in some cases still did some work until they were demanded to leave. The way the persons has coupled with their existence as retired is engagement in family life. Especially the persons which can be seen as refugee immigrants who have not worked so many years in Sweden depend on their children for economic reasons. They are also after retirement dependent on their children socially. The probably most important finding from the interviews is that the person with immigrant background loses almost all of their connections with the Swedish majority society. Almost all of the interviewees said that it was especially at the workplace they met and interacted with swedes. But now they are dependent on their own ethnic group and family/extended family. Another finding is the fact that some of the interviewees felt that they do not want to participate in organizations which goes under the concept immigrant organizations. One man with background in Greece said that all they do in the Grekiska föreningen ( The Greek Association ) is drinking coffee and playing cards. What he and other means is that they experience themselves as swedes, some of them have lived in Sweden for almost 50 years, and when they for example goes back to their home countries, they feel alienated and very Swedish. But they still feel not threated as Swedes from the surrounding majority society. But also something that was shown in the interviews was that both some of the interviewees did not speak the Swedish language so well. It was even the case among persons who have lived in Sweden since the 1960s. But there are some of the persons in this study which have found meaning in life after retirement. Three of the interviewees are members of an organization called PRO ( Retired Persons National Association ). This is an organization which has mainly inborn swedes as members, and has had problems to recruit persons with immigrant background as members. But the persons in this study who participated in PROs activities meant that they had found meaningful relationships and things to do during the days. Finally I asked what it means to live in a so called segregated area such as Norrby. Many of the interviewees had lived there for their entire Swedish life and a majority for many years. They meant that on one side there is comforting to live with other people with the same background, but they also felt that the image they meet from the surrounding society does not fit with their own experiences of the place they live in. Norrby is after all according to the interviewees a relatively good place to age in.

6 6 Discussion According to Tilly (1998) people are given categories according to their economic value and use they have in the labor market. In the case of labor force immigrants they were welcomed to work in the textile- and garment industry when they were young. But one important finding in this study is that when they get retired they still feel treated as immigrants from the surrounding society. The immigrants that can be categorized as refugee immigrants in this study were categorized to work in occupations that resembled bad with their education and skills. And after retirement they still feel categorized as both immigrants and now as retired; i.e. as excluded in a double sense from Swedish social and economic life. References Aspers, Patrik (2011) Etnografiska metoder: Att förstå och förklara samtiden. 2:a uppl. Malmö: Liber. Björk Brämberg, Elisabeth (2008) Att vara invandrare och patient i Sverige: Ett individorienterat perspektiv. Växjö: Växjö University Press. Dahlberg, Karin; Helena Dahlberg and Maria Nyström (2008) Reflective Lifeworld Research. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Featherstone, Mike & Andrew Wernick (ed.) (1995) Images of aging: cultural representations of later life. London: Routledge. Ore, Tracy (2013) The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality. Ohio: McGraw-Hill. Schutz, Alfred ([1932] 1967) The Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. Simmel, Georg ([1908] 2009) Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms. Vol 1 and Vol. II. Anthony J. Blasi, Anton K. Jacobs & Mathew Kanjirathinkal (red.). Boston: Brill. Sollors, Werner (red.) (1996) Theories of Ethnicity. A classical Reader. New York: New York University Press. Tilly, Charles (1998) Durable Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press. Torres, Sandra (2008) Äldre invandrare I Sverige. Om homogeniserandet av en heterogen social kategori och skapandet av ett välfärdsproblem., i Mehrdad Darvishpour och Charles Westin (red.) Migration och Etnicitet. Lund: Studentlitteratur.