Intergenerational Solidarity in the Context of Migration: A Scoping Review

Providing physical, emotional, and financial support to ageing parents is a deeply ingrained social, religious, and, in some cases, legal obligation within ethno-cultural contexts. As population of ageing have changed the socio-demographic composition of various societies, and the globalization of international migration has destabilized the ethno-cultural landscape in which care is provided, debates on intergenerational solidarity and conflict have re-surfaced. Against this backdrop, engaging in inventories of knowledge becomes particularly propitious since theorization tends to expand the sociological imagination. One of the questions one can pose is for example whether the literature on filial piety is relevant to our understanding of international solidarity as it plays out outside of the North American and European context. To explore what characterizes research on intergenerational solidarity and conflict, this study deploys scoping review methodology. Relying on the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and delimiting the search to the following keywords: filial piety, intergenerational solidarity and intergenerational conflict, an approximate total of 500 peer reviewed articles have been identified. The review utilizes content analysis to identify the moral and material connections that the literature takes for granted, the research questions that the literature have focused on, the methodology employed, as well as the results which have derived from the empirical studies. In doing so, the review will identify the knowledge gaps that ought to be addressed in order for the debates on intergenerational solidarity and conflict to be advanced within the sociology of ageing, sociology of migration, and the sociology of family.