2026/04/03 by Sandra Torres, Pernilla Ågård, Rodrigo Serrat +5 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Diaspora, migration, transnational identity #Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies #Social Capital and Networks
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/17448689.2026.2653480
openalex publication_date 2026/04/03 · openalex created_date 2026/04/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
As the number of people with migrant backgrounds has increased, the need to explore their conceptualizations of civic engagement (CE) has risen. Few have, however, explored how migrants make sense of this notion, and whether their sense-making is related to the civic activities they perform. This is why this paper addresses these knowledge gaps by analysing 60 qualitative interviews with older migrants aged 60 and over in Belgium, Finland, Spain and Sweden, and juxtaposes their sense-making to the answers they offer to a participatory questionnaire. The participants use three distinct conceptualizations when explaining how they make sense of CE: (a) some allude to specific civic activities, (b) some refer to the endgames that these activities accomplish and (c) some mention both: activities and endgames. The analysis shows, however, that even those who engage civically in various ways use a limited purview when formulating what CE means to them. By offering insight into how older migrants make sense of CE, this paper questions some of the taken-for-granted assumptions that research on migrants’ civic engagement tends to make.