TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring older migrants’ meaning-making of ‘happiness’: “ The main thing is health. Young people might say otherwise.”
AU - Phlix, Micheline
AU - Vanrie, Jan
AU - Petermans, Ann
AU - Smetcoren, An-Sofie
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was supported by the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds UHasselt (Special Research Fund Hasselt University) [BOF19KP01]. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of Hasselt University (REC/SM ECIVRAr/190/107, 30 January 2020). The authors wish to thank all participants in this study for their time and for sharing their experiences. Furthermore, we wish to thank the municipality and community workers from Genk and Maasmechelen for their help in recruiting participants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024/12/31
Y1 - 2024/12/31
N2 - Purpose: As our ageing population is growing and diversifying, it is important to gain insight into the well-being of older migrants. However, the meanings of happiness can vary cross-culturally. Therefore, prior to exploring older migrants’ happiness, their meaning-making of “happiness” should be explored. This way, cultural or individual variations can be considered when analysing older migrants’ happiness. Not only migration background but also age could influence the meaning of well-being. For example, the meaning of well-being can change as people grow older. Therefore, both migration background and age are considered in exploring older migrants’ meaning-making of happiness. Methods: To do so, in-depth interviews with older migrants (n = 22) from various ethnicities were conducted in which their meaning-making of happiness was questioned via a semi-structured interview guide. Results: After analysing the results via thematic analysis, three overarching themes are discussed: (1) happiness associations, (2) happiness-pursuing strategies, and (3) happiness obstructions. The analysis then further focuses on the role of migration background and ageing on the meaning-making of happiness. Conclusions: Participants’ meaning-making of happiness seems strongly imbued with age-related references. On the contrary, the impact of migration background is rather limited. To explain this difference, the value of incorporating participants’ life course experiences emerged.
AB - Purpose: As our ageing population is growing and diversifying, it is important to gain insight into the well-being of older migrants. However, the meanings of happiness can vary cross-culturally. Therefore, prior to exploring older migrants’ happiness, their meaning-making of “happiness” should be explored. This way, cultural or individual variations can be considered when analysing older migrants’ happiness. Not only migration background but also age could influence the meaning of well-being. For example, the meaning of well-being can change as people grow older. Therefore, both migration background and age are considered in exploring older migrants’ meaning-making of happiness. Methods: To do so, in-depth interviews with older migrants (n = 22) from various ethnicities were conducted in which their meaning-making of happiness was questioned via a semi-structured interview guide. Results: After analysing the results via thematic analysis, three overarching themes are discussed: (1) happiness associations, (2) happiness-pursuing strategies, and (3) happiness obstructions. The analysis then further focuses on the role of migration background and ageing on the meaning-making of happiness. Conclusions: Participants’ meaning-making of happiness seems strongly imbued with age-related references. On the contrary, the impact of migration background is rather limited. To explain this difference, the value of incorporating participants’ life course experiences emerged.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85181752214
U2 - 10.1080/17482631.2023.2300873
DO - 10.1080/17482631.2023.2300873
M3 - Article
SN - 1748-2631
VL - 19
JO - International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
JF - International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
IS - 1
M1 - 2300873
ER -