Retirement Home? Ageing Migrant Workers in France and the Question of Return

This open access book offers new insights into the ageing-migration nexus and thenature of home. Documenting the hidden world of France’s migrant worker hostels, itexplores why older North and West African men continue to live past retirement agein this sub-standard housing. Conventional wisdom holds that at retirement labourmigrants ought to instead return to their families in home countries, where their Frenchpensions would have far greater purchasing power. This paradox is the point of departure for a book which transports readers from thebanlieues of Paris to the banks of the Senegal River and the villages of the Anti-Atlas.In intimate ethnographic detail, the author brings to life the experiences of these olderlabour migrants by sharing in the life of the hostels as a resident, by observing at closequarters the men's family life on the other side of the Mediterranean as a guest in theirhomes, and even by accompanying them in their travels by bus, sea, and air. The monograph evaluates several theories of migration against rich qualitativedata gathered from multiple methods: biographical narrative and semi-structuredinterviews, participant observation, and archival research. In the process, it offers athoughtful contribution to broader debates on what it means for migrants to belongand achieve inclusion in society. Christina Boswell, University of Edinburgh Russell King, University of Sussex