Mobile Aging and Transnational Familial Care between Turkey and Germany

The talk will present first results from a three-year research project that investigates the connections between the border-crossing mobile ageing practices of retirees and their social networks in the context of care needs and services between Turkey and Germany. A growing number of elderly people from Germany – with and without prior Turkish migration background – temporarily settles in tourist areas of Turkey as mobile retirement locations. Starting from the Turkish coastal city of Alanya, two sub-studies have been carried out on the mobility practices and care networks of retirees from Germany both with and without prior migration backgrounds from Turkey. The project aims to understand comparatively for both groups the conditions under which border-crossing lifestyles can be maintained, to identify causes and motivations, and to understand how forms of care and support circulate in transnational networks. It is particularly this latter point that will be the focus of our presentation, paying particular attention to intersectional dimensions of gender, class and racialization.