Tineke Fokkema has been appointed as the new endowed chair of 'Ageing, Families and Migration' at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). It is the first professorship in the Netherlands to focus on diversity within the population of older migrants, especially in relation to social issues and well-being.
Loneliness and the effects of migration on relationships within the family or with relatives left behind in the country of origin will be investigated. This endowed professorship is established by the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Tineke Fokkema studies a multifaceted group of migrants. The population of older migrants does not consist merely of former guest workers from Morocco and Turkey or persons who came to Europe in the nineteen sixties and seventies from the ex-colonies. Those who arrived as political refugees back then are also older now. In addition, there are senior residents who leave Northwestern Europe, permanently or seasonally, for countries with a more appealing climate and residential environment. These retirees and snowbirds settled mostly in coastal areas of the Mediterranean, but now also increasingly in less popular areas of Europe and even overseas. Some older adults also follow their emigrated children or travel back and forth to take care of their children or grandchildren, or to actually be cared for themselves.
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Marjolein Kooistra, media relations Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB),
010 408 2135 | kooistra [at] essb.eur.nl
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