Résumé
Older migrants constitute a heterogeneous population, an aspect that is
rarely acknowledged in the literature. This chapter shows how older migrants from
the same country of origin but with different migration contexts make use of welfare
provisions in their host country. By migration contexts, we mean socio-political
situations in the home and host countries at the time of migration, and the life course
stage at which migration occurs. Use of welfare provisions are defined as the ways
that migrants articulate public, third sector and informal providers. The analysis
draws on twenty-six biographical narrative interviews with older Romanian migrants
in Switzerland and in neighbouring France. The outcome points to two groups of
older migrants: former political refugees who arrived in Switzerland when young
and aged in place, and recently arrived family migrants who mainly joined their
adult children abroad. The two groups of older migrants exhibit important differences
in the use of welfare provisions, and the location where those are accessed.