The making of ageing migrant masculinities: loss and recuperation in the lived experiences of Chinese and Korean older adult migrant men

Abstract

ABSTRACT Older adult migrants face what has been termed as a ‘double jeopardy’ – social marginalisation due to their new migrant status as cultural ‘outsiders’ in the arrival country, as well as the challenges they face as ageing adults. However, a study of Chinese and Korean older migrant men in Perth presents a more nuanced narrative of their lived experiences of ageing and migration. Although the male participants of this study articulate anxieties and feelings of dislocation that are commonly associated with ageing and migration, at the same time, they also engage in various activities that open up new spaces of individual agency and empowerment. This article examines the experiences of ageing migrant men from the perspective of gender to foreground how ageing and migration shape their masculine identities in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. We suggest that a ‘double jeopardy’ framework is insufficient in explaining older migrant men’s experience of ageing and migration as it does not explore how these men employ a variety of strategies to recreate ageing migrant masculinities that are agentic and empowered.