Elderly Immigrants in Sweden: ‘Otherness’ Under Construction

Abstract

Informed by a social constructionist approach, this article reviews and evaluates the research literature on elderly immigrants in Sweden, shedding light on how a specific category is created and comes to be regarded as a social problem. There is a pervasive ‘problematisation’ of elderly immigrants in Sweden. The paper argues that a social category of ‘elderly immigrants’ has been constructed among those concerned with elderly care and policy, even though there is ample evidence that the elderly group is exceptionally diverse and that, apart from a non-Swedish background, the various constituent groups have little in common. They have nonetheless been consistently approached as if they were an easily identifiable and homogeneous social category posing an unusual challenge for elderly-care planners and providers. Thus, as a socially constructed ‘problem’, these elders seem to have become yet another ‘Other’ in Swedish society.