Gendering the dilemmas of retirement and return among older British Bangladeshis

Abstract

The Bangladeshi-origin community is one of the largest, longest-established and fastest-growing migrant groups in the UK. For the first-generation immigrants, retirement brings a threefold dilemma: stay put for the rest of their lives, surrounded by children and grandchildren; return to Bangladesh to enjoy a peaceful later-life there; or adopt a to-and-fro transnational lifestyle. Interviews were conducted with 32 British Bangladeshis aged 60+, both in London and Sylhet (their main region of origin), with the aim of ascertaining how gender contributes to return migration theory and practice. We find, first, that most British-Bangladeshi elders do not return. Second, return mobilities, for shorter or longer stays, are highly gendered: it is overwhelmingly men who contemplate and actualise return. Return migration is about reclaiming masculinity and meaning in old age in the home area. Some older men return seasonally, to escape the British winter. A major preoccupation of returnees is access to health services, deemed poor and expensive in Bangladesh.