Abstract
This paper draws attention to elderly male Pakistani immigrants in Norway and how they relate to a welfare culture where elderly care is largely defined as public responsibility vested in tax-financed service arrangements. It explores how norms and ideals of family organization and elderly care, as contained in pre-emigrational master narratives, are transmitted, negotiated, or modified to shape intergenerational reciprocity on the backdrop of an egalitarian welfare state. Focusing on narrativity and the tropes identified in the personal stories of elderly Norwegian-Pakistani men, we demonstrate that references to master narratives of ideal practice sometimes overshadow real needs and falsely portray elderly care as a ‘self-solved’ problem. There is a range of stigmas associated with a departure from familial care. This in turn reinforces stereotypical depictions and aversive attitudes about public intervention, which again nourishes the desire to keep in line with their tradition. Despite cherishment of tradition, our empirical data show that personal stories often constitute covert counter narratives, that is, elderly Norwegian-Pakistanis are beginning to accept that some forms of public assistance could be rendered both necessary and morally acceptable in light of pragmatic circumstances.
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Notes
The proportion of residents 80+ increased steadily from 52 % in 1960, through 56 % in 1970, 64 % in 1980 to 73 % in 1997 and 77 % in 2005 (Statistics Norway 2010). The trend may to some extent be explained by better health among the elderly. But it also reflects higher housing standards in general and higher level of special service housing and expansion of community services, such as home nursing.
It should however be noted that service houses may be very similar to that of nursing homes. Accordingly, the distinction between institutional- and home care has become blurred and it is therefore reasonable to assert that the development is less radical than the statistical data indicates.
Between 1997 and 2005, the number of people who received domestic home help was reduced by 14 %. In the same time span people who reported that they had received help from relatives increased from 9 % to 14 % (Svalund 2005).
Huseby and Paulsen (2009) found that 80 % of home care recipients feel that their needs are met. Moreover they found that the majority of nursing home residents (and their next of kin) regard that basic needs are met.
Out of 31 884 Norwegian-Pakistanis, 17 454 are immigrants while 14 430 are born in Norway to two Pakistani parents (Statistics Norway 2011).
According to Lien (1997), most Norwegian-Pakistanis in Oslo are either Gujar or Jat, both of which have a range of subgroups and are defined as zamindari, or landowning castes. In addition, there are zamindaris like Kashmiris represented, but in fewer numbers. The same is the case for the agricultural laborer caste called kammi and for people from larger cities like Lahore and Islamabad, who may be less concerned with caste and have more education that people from rural areas.
Biradaris can be defined as endogamous kinship units or sub-castes and “usually have caste (zat) names,” but biradari need not always pertain to people who know each other well as it sometimes “describes everyone with whom there is an assumed kinship link” (Shaw 2001:322).
In Oslo, like Shaw (2001) has found among Pakistanis in Britain, marriages are usually arranged within castes (Lien1997). Today, about 75 % of all marriages involving Norwegian-Pakistanis are contracted with individuals living in Pakistan, while about 24 % are matrimonies between Norwegian-Pakistanis (Daugstad 2006). This pattern attests to the importance of the biradari and of endogamy and reinvigorates idea of family and kinship relations as principal hubs of identity and belonging.
According to Giddens (1986, 1991a), “ontological security” pertains to immigrants’ emotional state as it transpires from people’s ability to establish trust and of tactfully ordering day-to-day life in a predictable, routinized manner. It ties into to the degree to which a sense of continuity and constancy can be achieved in their surroundings and interactions. Kinship ties may thus provide a stable network for trustworthy social connections and for organizing common practices in situations of uncertainty (Giddens 1991b).
The concentration of immigrants to urban areas like the capital, Oslo, and its environs implies that the task of accommodating ethno-cultural diversity within the equitable welfare system is unevenly distributed between municipalities.
There are about 400 Norwegian-Pakistanis aged above 70 and 1,400 between 60 and 69 (Henriksen 2010). Considering that there are about 50 % more men than women in this age category, as the “guest-worker” pioneers were predominantly male, our sample of informants constitute a roughly estimated 4 % of Norwegian-Pakistani males above 60.
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Næss, A., Vabø, M. Negotiating Narratives of Elderly Care: The Case of Pakistani Migration to Norway. Ageing Int 39, 13–32 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-012-9147-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-012-9147-2