National and transnational belonging among Turkish and Moroccan older migrants in the Netherlands: protective against loneliness?

J. Klok, Theo G. van Tilburg, B.A. Suanet, Tineke Fokkema, M. Huisman

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This research investigates how a sense of belonging functions as protective mechanism against loneliness. Inspired by the work of Berry (1980) on acculturation strategies (i.e. integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization), we distinguish migrants who feel a relatively strong or weak sense of belonging to larger society and those who feel a strong or weak belonging to the “own group.” We expect that more national belonging contributes to less loneliness. We add a transnational perspective by arguing that feelings of belonging to the own group can take place in the country of settlement, but can also be transnational, i.e. a feeling of belonging to the country of origin. Transnational belonging can protect against loneliness, as it acknowledges the importance of place attachment. Using data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam on older migrants aged 55–66, we employ latent class analysis and find five national belonging clusters, interpretable in terms of Berry’s acculturation strategies. Further analyses reveal mixed evidence: some aspects of transnational belonging vary with belonging to the own group, but other aspects point to a third dimension of belonging. Regression analysis shows that those marginalized are loneliest and that a transnational sense of belonging contributes to more loneliness. We conclude that Berry’s (1980) typology is useful for interpreting older migrants’ national belonging and that a transnational sense of belonging is apparent among older migrants, but needs to be explored further.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)341-351
Number of pages11
JournalEuropean Journal of Ageing
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Funding

The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam is supported by a Grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports, Directorate of Long-Term Care. The data collection was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in the framework of the project “New Cohorts of young old in the 21st century” (file number 480-10-014). Suanet’s work was supported by a Veni Grant (NWO; file number 451-14-019). Fokkema’s research is part of the “Families in Context” project, funded by an Advanced Investigator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC, 324211).

FundersFunder number
Netherlands Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports, Directorate of Long-Term Care
Seventh Framework Programme324211
European Research Council
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek451-14-019, 480-10-014

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