Between here and there: comparing the worry about the pandemic between older Italian international migrants and natives in Switzerland.

Abstract

Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, people have been worried about COVID-19. As one of the risk groups, persons aged 65 and older are especially vulnerable. Additionally, minorities and migrants are hit harder by the pandemic than natives. Using data from the TransAge survey, a study including over 3000 older persons (65+) living in Switzerland and Italy, we show that the levels of worry about the pandemic are significantly higher among Italian international migrants living in Switzerland than among Swiss natives. We are not able to fully explain the difference using sociodemographic variables, the COVID-19 situation at the time of the interview, and international migrants' transnationalism behavior. Nevertheless, transnationalism explains a large part of the difference in worry between the two groups and our study sheds light on the importance of two specific transnational aspects, having Swiss nationality and voting behavior, for the prevention of elevated levels of worry of international migrants.