Welfare Grey Areas: Aging among the Foreign Population, Housing Needs, and Social Services

Resumen

Although the ageing of the foreign population is often portrayed as a future issue, the Italian welfare system is already facing changes in the demographic composition of migrants. Starting from the idea that ageing in migration affects not only migrants themselves and their families – whether reunited or left behind (Ciobanu et al. 2017) – but also the social context and welfare system of the receiving country (Bolzman, Vagni 2017), this article focuses on the ageing of the foreign population through the lens of social services. It asks: what are the specific features of working with elderly migrants? Do they generate new demands for services, and if so, how are services responding? Based on interviews and focus groups with officials from the Social Services of the City of Turin, as well as practitioners from third-sector organizations contracted to provide these services, the article highlights how the needs expressed by older people with a migratory background – particularly housing-related needs – often fall into a “grey area,” located between the responsibilities of different services. To address this issue, the article first describes the services involved and the demographic context in which they operate, and then analyzes the tensions between their “historical mandates” and emerging needs, as well as how the categories through which needs and vulnerabilities are defined shape practices in the field. These tensions lie at the core of the grey area under discussion. In conclusion, the article shows how, in response to new demands and shrinking resources, services adopt both defensive strategies and transformative approaches in an effort to safeguard social rights.