Late-life immigrants’ place integration through occupation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Immigrating and aging in a foreign environment, or aging out-of-place, is part of the late-life experience for a growing number of older adults. Examining how everyday occupations are part of late-life immigrants’ relationships to multiple places, cultures, and identities can expand upon scholarship addressing immigration in occupational science. This phenomenological study explored how Sinhalese late-life immigrants to Canada connect and engage with places through aging processes, centering the essentiality of daily occupations within such engagement. An interpretive paradigm and a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, informed by the work of van Manen (1984, 1997), guided the inquiry. Two phenomenological interviews were conducted with 10 Sinhalese late-life immigrants who immigrated to Canada within the last 10 years. Grounded in a transactional perspective, the theoretical concept of place integration was used as a lens through which to interpret how late-life immigrants establish relationships to the post-migration context through occupation. The essence of the aging out-of-place experience is elaborated through the presentation of four themes; 1) surrendering occupational roles and meaningful occupations, 2) feeling like an alien, 3) building a sense of continuity through occupation, and 4) integrating into place through occupational change. Sociopolitical forces and scarce interactions with the host society were unique place-based challenges in the aging out-of-place experience that threatened participants’ possibilities for action. Study findings highlight the centrality of occupation in the place integration process and illuminate the intersections between person, environment, and occupation.