Britain’s South Asian Elders and Second Generation Out-Migration: Family and Care in the Context of COVID-19
摘要
This chapter addresses two critical issues relating to transnational aging and care practices among second-generation British South Asian elders with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, it discusses the role of family ties, migration, and a culture in transition, and secondly, it highlights the challenges associated with unmet needs across health and social care among aging parents who are left behind. Projections of the numbers of disabled older people, the numbers receiving care and/or formal services, and the funding of long-term care for older people in the United Kingdom point to a future shortfall in family carers. The issue of being at risk of vulnerability in relation to parents who are left behind is therefore an important UK policy issue. The impact of longstanding inequalities across health, social care, and pensions could be intensified for British Asian groups in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and adult children living abroad. When migrants leave their country of birth it can mean that their aging parents are left behind. Young British Asian people are leaving the United Kingdom for other countries. Research in low- and middle-income countries has shown that parents left behind can be vulnerable to poor health. This chapter describes migration among the second generation, the impact COVID-19 has had on British South Asian communities, and the potential affect the care gap could have on elders left behind.