Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1620911

This article is part of the Research TopicMigration and Health: A Human Rights Perspective - Conference Insights and BeyondView all 6 articles

A Quest for Understanding: Older Migrants’ Well-Being Beyond Integration in Sweden

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Linköping University, Campus Norrköping, Sweden
  • 2Marie Cederschiöld University, Stockholm, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Purpose: This study investigates how older foreign-born adults in Sweden experience and navigate social connectedness as a determinant of well-being.Methods: Employing Glaser's grounded theory methodology, we collected qualitative data through individual (n=1) and focus group (n=5) interviews with 23 participants aged 60+ representing four distinct cultural-linguistic groups: Arabic, Finnish, Spanish, and Chinese speakers.The analysis identified "a quest for understanding" as the core category, encompassing three dimensions: (1) wanting to be understood, (2) wanting to understand, and (3) reaching for reconciliation. While participants shared universal needs for validation and connection, their experiences revealed tensions between aspirations and the challenges of language barriers, cultural distance, and generational differences. Notably, perceptions and experiences showed strong within-group similarities but significant between-group variations.Discussion: Framed by Nordenfelt's concept of well-being as "want-equilibrium," the findings highlight understanding as both a social need and existential pursuit. While Finnish speakers' minority status eased integration, Arabic and Chinese speakers navigated systemic inclusion yet social exclusion. Resilience strategies -bicultural fluency, insular solidarity, or selfreliance-reflected Bourdieusian capital disparities. Well-being thus hinges on mutual recognition: migrants' adaptability and Sweden's capacity to perceive them beyond structural categories.

Keywords: Belonging, culture, identity negotiation, older immigrants, social inclusion, wellbeing

Received: 30 Apr 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Larsson Ranada, Roos and Hellström. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ingrid Hellström, Marie Cederschiöld University, Stockholm, Sweden

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.