Lives in Motion: Auto-biographical negotiations of migration, identity and belonging among racially minoritised older adults in the UK with Dr Michael Thomas and Dr Amy Prescott (Brunel University of London)
A BSA Auto/Biography Study Group Event
7 May 2026 (1700-1800 BST)
Online
About the Event
Abstract
This paper examines autobiographical narratives of older adults from racially minoritised groups who identify as first- and second-generation migrants to the UK. Drawing on qualitative life history interviews from the ESRC-funded Socially Inclusive Ageing across the Life-course study, we explore how autobiographical accounts of ageing integrate life course processes including migration, settlement, integration and exclusion. Participants’ narratives reflect the interplay of global forces, local contexts and personal histories in shaping life trajectories. Migration emerges not as a singular event but as a response to shifting geopolitical conditions, labour market needs, decolonisation and individual aspirations. Life course accounts reveal tensions arising from negotiating competing cultural norms, as well as navigating social expectations and shifts in public policy. Later-life reflections show how aspects of privilege and disadvantage form the backdrop to experiences of ageing, identity and participation in social networks.
Situating these personal stories within wider historical and structural contexts, we engage with C. Wright Mills’s sociological imagination and Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory. We demonstrate that later life is contextualised by wider social and political contexts linking migration, ethnicity, identity, gender and belonging.
Registration
- Auto/biography Study Group Member/BSA Member: FREE
- Non-Member: £10
Zoom joining instructions will be sent approximately 24 hours in advance of the event. We hope you can join us.
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