Senior citizenship? Retirement, migration and welfare in the European Union

Book abstract:

There are three core objectives to the research that underpins this publication:

• To chart the development of mobility and welfare rights for those citizens exercising their right to move or return home on retirement under the Free Movement of Persons provisions
• To develop a comprehensive and grounded understanding of the process and experience of retirement migration as the basis of a more meaningful engagement with European law and policy
• To explore the importance of welfare issues in relation to the international migratory movements of retired European citizens who move within the EU.

The book is organised over eight chapters including a helpful introduction. Chapter two discusses the concept of citizenship and its relationship to equality and well being. The legal framework underpinning the mobility rights of post-retirement migrants is outlined in chapter three which also covers the different factors which shape the social status of retired migrants and the unpredictability of life course in old age. Chapter four provides an overview of the motivational factors and issues that underpin the migratory movements of the respondents included in the research. The importance and influence of formal health and care provisions on the migratory decisions of retired EU migrants are addressed in chapter five. Aspects of financial security in retirement are the focus of chapter six, which also discusses the impact of differing individual financial circumstances and wider institutional and economic arrangements across Europe on the migratory movements of the retired respondents. Chapter seven addresses the neglected relationship between care and mobility and presents material which raises a number of issues about the characterisation of older people as passive and dependent recipients of care. The discussion goes on to challenge the legal distinction between paid and unpaid work and the concept of economic contribution. The concluding chapter eight draws together the core theoretical ideas, the legal and policy analysis and the qualitative findings of the research and closes with a summary of the nature of status differentiation within the population of European citizens with specific reference to retired migrants. The book will interest scholars, students, policy makers and researchers in the fields of social care and welfare provision.

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