ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how a population of immigrant women experiences ageing outside their natal country. By focusing on the subjective experiences of ageing migrants, we gain insight into the ways they reconfigure their identities after their geographic migration and in relation to their movement along the life course. Older people are often treated as homogenous populations going through the same changes and having the same needs. This chapter highlights the heterogeneity of ageing populations by examining former Soviet citizens who immigrated later in life to and have chosen to stay in Finland. Two major questions are asked: First, how is their ethnicity experienced when distanced from “home”, both geographically and culturally? Second, in what ways are former Soviet citizens’ subjective conceptions of ageing well influenced by their migration to Finland? Data from semi-structured interviews with older women reveal the ways they think about their lives as ageing immigrants in Finland and what ageing well means to them. Factors like stability and security appear to be more important than familiarity, friends and family in their decisions to stay in Finland. This chapter contributes to a more nuanced and culturally salient understanding of ageing immigrants’ experiences.
