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In the Shadows of Others: Unheard Voices of Older Russian Immigrant Women in the United States

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Abstract

Older post-Soviet immigrants in the U.S. have been largely overlooked by research despite their unique experience of having lived in a totalitarian regime until middle age, only to find their lives profoundly altered after its fall. Our qualitative study examined the experiences and caregiving expectations of 16 older post-Soviet immigrant women (mean age = 74.5 years, SD =5.8) through in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Data analysis revealed four themes: broken family ties, happiness in the little things that money can buy, intergenerational comparison, and a nursing home is not an option. Overall, our findings emphasize immigration as an important life course event, with profound implications to one’s social position, familial ties, employment opportunities contributes to a deeper understanding of how historical context shapes the aging experiences and intergenerational relationships.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for Dr. Robert Rubinstein’s early insights into this work and were deeply saddened by his passing.

Funding

Data reported in this paper derived from two research projects “Lifestyles and Generativity of Childless Older Women” (AG030614; PI: Dr. Robert Rubinstein, UMBC) and “Lifestyles and Generativity of Older Russian Women” (AG030614-S1; PI: Dr. Robert Rubinstein, UMBC).

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  1. Department of Sociology, Case Western Reserve University, 226 Mather Memorial Building, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Polina Ermoshkina

  2. Department of Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    Kate B. de Medeiros

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  1. Polina Ermoshkina
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Polina Ermoshkina and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Polina Ermoshkina.

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This study was granted an exempt approval from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County’s Institutional Review Board. Informed consents for the original study were obtained by Dr. Kate de Medeiros.

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Ermoshkina, P., de Medeiros, K.B. In the Shadows of Others: Unheard Voices of Older Russian Immigrant Women in the United States. J Cross Cult Gerontol 37, 69–88 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-021-09446-8

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