Social Contexts of Education and Learning in Retirement Migration

March 2012 – October 2013
Overview Theory Methods Findings Outputs
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Overview

This project aimed to explore the role of educational activities in International Retirement Migration. The current global cohort of older people is the most highly formally educated in human history. Education has been demonstrated as playing an important role in supporting ‘active ageing’ and reducing older people’s social isolation. The research explored learning beyond the classroom in the lives of later-life, mainly British migrants who had moved to the south of Spain. It documented migrants’ experiences in numerous clubs and associations, assessing the importance of self-directed and group learning through qualitative ethnographic research. The findings demonstrate the important consequences of these groups in developing social capital and developing innovative new strategies for social care in the absence of welfare state mechanisms among older peers. It also considered the ways in which migration itself opened up new possibilities for learning, such as language learning.

Principal Investigator

Caroline Oliver

Funding

The British Academy