What To Do After Retirement? Elderly Migrants and the Question of Return

Abstract

This paper analyses in general terms the ‘return question’ or, to be more precise, the intentions of older Italian and Spanish migrants living in Switzerland as to their place of residence after retirement, and the criteria governing their decision. Survey data reveal that the majority of respondents either planned to stay in Switzerland, or to live part of the year in Switzerland and part of the year in their home country; the return option was less popular. The literature on migration has already pointed to the existence of the ‘third option’, namely dividing the residence between two countries. In particular, studies on northern European retirees in southern European areas have shown evidence of this form of living arrangement. But the extent of the phenomenon among former guestworkers who came from southern countries to a northern country seems surprising. Moreover, this option, a manifestation of the ‘circulation of migrants’, is adopted as a project not only by people of high but also low socio-economic status. This option is popular because it is related to the development through time of a way of life defined by dual preference, namely to maintain cultural, symbolic, concrete and affective ties with both countries.