Discussion: Ageing while your children are abroad 6th March, Tarija

A one day engagement and dissemination event organised in Tarija, Bolivia to communicate findings from the fieldwork in Tarija on the effects of migration on the population aged 60+.  the research has been carried out in collaboration with the group Jaina.

Invitees included local and regional authorities, local academics, the Director of Tarija Older People’s home, HelpAge International Bolivia and the local and regional associations of senior citizens.  Through this event we aim to use the findings from this research project to advance the concerns of older people.

The event is funded by the University of Manchester’s School of Environment, Education and Development and is part of the British Academy – Leverhulme project on Migration and ageing in Bolivia. Read coverage in the Tarija newspaper El Pais (Spanish only).

Pictures: Pedro Azuga

I am currently involved in examining the consequences that migration has for the older left behind in Bolivia. In 2013 this project involved carrying out interviews in Cochabamba with people aged 60 and above whose children were abroad. This fieldwork was funded by the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA) in collaboration with the Centro de Estudios Superiores Universitarios at the University of San Simón in Cochabamba. We are now expanding the interviews to Tarija and Santa Cruz. This second phase is funded by the British Academy-Leverhulme Trust and is carried out in collaboration with Jaina, Tarija.

The methodology involves in-depth qualitative life story interviews with both men and women aged 60 and above, who have at least some of their children living abroad at the time of the interview. The aim is to understand how older people cope while being separated from their adult children. How do they cope with the separation? Does migration create new vulnerabilities for those who are left behind?

In each location we aim to sample interviewees in urban, peri-urban and rural areas as migration is likely to have differentiated effects depending on the predominant local economy. This strategy has also allowed us to sample some very poor and some quite affluent interviewees. In each city we have also interviewed some elderly people in institutional settings, in care homes.