Aging in Sweden as foreign-born – a quest for life and its meaning: a grounded theory study

Aging and migration are two defining demographic challenges many developed countries are currently witnessing. Sweden is no exception. Approximately 20% of Sweden’s population is now foreign-born, reflecting a profound demographic shift from its pre–Second World War homogeneity to one of Europe’s most multicultural societies (Statistics Sweden, 2025). This transformation began with labour migration during the economic expansion of the 1950–1960s, later shifting towards refugee migration and family reunification from the 1970s onward due to global conflicts and Sweden’s historically generous asylum policies. Following the 2015 European refugee crisis, public discourse intensified and asylum policies tightened, placing greater emphasis on integration. Consequently, older foreign-born adults in Sweden today form a highly heterogeneous group with diverse migration histories, leading to significant variations in living conditions, health status and social integration (Torres and Magnusson, 2021).

Both migration and aging constitute profound life transitions, marked by discontinuity, resource loss and the need to adapt to new cultural and institutional settings. These processes can profoundly challenge an individual’s sense of identity, belonging and coherence. Migration often ruptures established social networks, forcing individuals to rebuild a sense of belonging in unfamiliar environments (Berry, 1997), while aging typically involves not only challenges of failing health but also a natural contraction of social circles (Cornwell et al., 2008). When these transitions intersect, older migrants face compounded challenges in navigating host-country institutions, care systems and reconfigured support networks (Karl and Torres, 2019). Even family – traditionally the primary source of support for older adults – can undergo structural and functional changes due to migration. Intergenerational tensions, cultural distance and increased dependence can strain familial ties, thereby undermining older migrants’ autonomy and well-being (Fokkema and Naderi, 2013).

Existing European research on older migrants’ living conditions has been predominantly quantitative and oriented towards a vulnerability perspective, highlighting health disparities (Reus-Pons et al., 2018; Walkden et al., 2018), economic precarity (Gustafsson et al., 2019), social exclusion (KC et al., 2023) and impaired subjective well-being (Sand and Gruber, 2017). In Sweden, recent studies – often macroeconomic or institutional in focus – similarly frame older foreign-born adults, particularly late-life migrants, as a vulnerable group facing accumulated adversities that may strain welfare systems (e.g. Gustafsson et al., 2019; Forssell et al., 2015; Mac Innes, 2020). As Magnusson (2021) notes, however, there remains a notable lack of knowledge regarding the broader living conditions and lived experiences of this population.

Thus, more comprehensive research is needed to understand how older migrants in Sweden perceive the interplay between migration and aging. Further attention is also warranted regarding the role of the Swedish welfare system in supporting this group. This study aims to address these gaps by exploring the aging experiences and perceptions of older foreign-born individuals from diverse socioeconomic and migratory backgrounds.

The study design adopts Glaser’s grounded theory paradigm (Glaser, 1978). The research setting is a medium-sized municipality in eastern Sweden whose foreign-born population demographically mirrors the diversity of the foreign-born population across Sweden.

Informants were purposively sampled (Polit and Beck, 2020) to maximize diversity in demographic, cultural, immigration-related and socioeconomic backgrounds. Eligibility criteria required informants to be foreign-born individuals aged 60 years or older, residing in Sweden and capable of engaging in conversation. Country of birth served as a proxy for cultural background, with recruitment aiming to collectively represent the World Culture Map (World Values Survey, 2022). Migration status encompassed factors such as years of residence in Sweden and age at immigration. Socioeconomic diversity was assessed through self-rated health, formal education years and employment status. When balancing all factors proved challenging, sampling prioritised cultural background, migration status, age group and gender for their anticipated relevance to the study’s objectives.

Table 1 presents a summary of the background information of the informants involved in this study. They were six women and nine men between 60 and 85 years old. The youngest age at the time of immigration to Sweden was 17 and the oldest 58. Six informants migrated to Sweden for family reunion, four for employment and five for asylum. The length of residence in Sweden was between 20 and 67 years. Eleven were married and lived with their spouses. One was a widow. The remaining three were divorced singles. Most informants rated their health as good. Although two men (Nos. 5 and 10) managed significant medical conditions, none reported mobility restrictions or required assistance with daily activities. The informants had diverse educational backgrounds, ranging from almost none to 20 years of formal education. They originated from diverse regions, including Asia (India, China and Turkey), Europe (Finland, UK, Italy, Romania and Croatia), Central and South America (Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Bolivia) and Africa (Congo).

A majority of the informants were recruited through a combination of convenience sampling and subsequent network sampling (Polit and Beck, 2020). The first author also visited places where the local older people, and older foreign-born people in particular, tend to meet each other, for example, the municipal social centers, ethnic cultural associations and religious communities. Representatives of these organizations were contacted, and permission asked for to put up announcement of our study in their locations. They were also asked to recommend informants that might be eligible for our study.

After conducting eight interviews, we made a deliberate decision to recruit informants with more diverse backgrounds compared with previously interviewed, to explore the potential emergencies of new categories. Recognizing the significance of including individuals belonging to the “later-in-life immigrant” group, often deemed challenging to access due to social isolation compounded by various socioeconomic difficulties, we submitted an additional ethical application to use an interpreter (Approval No. 20210955 by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority). A family member with verified language proficiency, authorized by the Swedish agency Kammarkollegiet, served as the interpreter for informant Nos. 9 and 10. While this approach may have influenced the information shared by the informants (Edwards, 1998; Heath et al., 2023), we believe that the benefits of including insights from older migrants who are otherwise challenging to reach outweigh any potential disadvantages.

As the core category conceptualizing the main concerns of the informants emerged, we used theoretical sampling to recruit individuals who could offer further insights into the emerging themes. Specifically, we sought persons who had resided in Sweden for an extended period and possessed a strong command of the Swedish language, recognizing from previous interviews that language proficiency significantly influenced the depth and informativeness of the conversations.

Data comprised 15 individual interviews conducted between January and September 2021. The interviews were semi-structured with one general question: “What do you think about aging in Sweden?” Fourteen interviews were conducted face-to-face, with eight taking place at the informants’ homes and six at public locations. In addition, one interview was conducted via Zoom video conferencing, at the request of the informant as a precautionary measure against the risk of COVID-19 infection. Interview with the Chinese-speaking informant was conducted in Mandarin (the first language for the first author, also an authorized and active Mandarin-Swedish interpreter). The remaining interviews were conducted in Swedish, including two where a relative served as a Spanish-Swedish interpreter. The duration of the interviews ranged from 45 to 75 min.

All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim in Swedish. Following each interview, a research memo was initiated, and field notes were taken to document the researcher’s observations of the informant and the interview situations. Primary impressions and ideas gathered from the interviews were also recorded in the research memo for further analysis and reflection.

The data analysis followed a Glaserian grounded theory approach, comprising four iterative stages:

Step 1: Open coding

Interview transcripts were analyzed line-by-line to generate initial codes. Data were fractured into discrete concepts, which were then labeled. For example:

Step 2: Constant comparative analysis

Codes were constantly compared across informants to identify substantive categories. Early categories (e.g., “migration as a lifetime event,” “Carpe diem” and “double assets”) were descriptive. Through further analysis, these condensed into more theoretical categories such as “sense-making,” “seeking coherence” and “seeking purpose.”

Step 3: Memo writing and theoretical coding

Memo-writing facilitated analysis of the relationships between categories. Through sorting and integrating memos, a core category was identified: a quest for life and its meaning.

Step 4: Theoretical integration and model construction

Once the core category was stable, a formal review of substantive literature was conducted. Weick’s (1995) theory of sensemaking – which posits that individuals construct meaning retrospectively amid disruption – provided a robust theoretical lens for interpreting the data. The final model conceptualizes aging as an iterative process of narrative construction across three dimensions: retrospection, enactment and coherence.

To ensure analytical rigor, regular research team meetings were held to discuss emerging categories, challenge biases and resolve interpretive differences. Peer-debriefing sessions were also conducted with the first author, who served as the primary coder.

The analysis revealed that informants navigated the experience of aging through an ongoing process of meaning construction, best conceptualized as – a quest for life and its meaning. This core process reflects participants’ efforts to reduce the inherent equivocality of growing older by weaving their past, present and future into a coherent and purposeful narrative.

This quest unfolds through three interrelated subprocesses:

1. Making sense of my journey: establishing a stable identity through retrospection.

2. Making sense of my situation: using that identity to enact strategies to manage present realities.

3. Living in the moment with a sense of belonging: achieving a plausible, coherent narrative that fosters contentment and enables continuation.

As illustrated in Figure 1, these subprocesses form an iterative sensemaking cycle through which informants interpret their experiences, adapt to challenges and ultimately cultivate a sense of purpose and belonging in later life.

All the interviews started with the question “Tell me about yourself – Why did you migrate to Sweden?,” which usually triggered a flow of reminiscence of life stories. They spoke about memorable people, events and experiences throughout their lives, which could be organized into the following subcategories: where I come from, what I have done, and who I have been.

The topic of aging evoked memories among the informants of their parents and their families of origins. Childhood and upbringing in the original family influenced and shaped their lives in every way. Several informants emphasized that they were grateful that they had inherited values such as family solidarity, love for community, gratitude and reverence for older people, which made them “a little more than native Swedes” (No. 4). They found these as winning recipes that had helped them cope with life, a cultural heritage that they wished to pass over to the next generations. They referred to memories of how their older parents lived, aged and died, when they reasoned how their own aging lives would look like beyond.

While most informants reflected on their families of origins with affection, a few had bitter memories of their loveless original families. Even in these cases, the trauma of not feeling loved and valued as a child had put them on a mission to seek a sense of purpose later in life.

The informants were proud of what they had achieved. One 85-year-old man was still dreaming about his favorite sport, which had brought him numerous Swedish gold medals. A 64-year-old man had established three companies during his 45 years in Sweden, borrowing money from relatives and fellow country people, and described proudly that it was immigrants like himself that had introduced pizza, kebab, falafel and other food cultures to Sweden. A 78-year-old woman immigrated to Sweden alone at the age of 56, when she got a job invitation as a housekeeper for a family in Stockholm, because Sweden would be a better home for her grandson. For the following eight years, she was the sole breadwinner for the family, which included her husband and her grandson.

Whatever their original reason for migration, they were happy with their decisions to migrate to Sweden. Some described it as the best thing ever happened them. Reflection on immigration evoked a lot of feelings of gratitude and devotion toward their new home country, though for most informants, the stories about their journey to integrate into the Swedish society were also associated with hardships and frustrations, especially in the beginning. Most informants claimed that they migrated for a better future, not only for themselves but also for their children and grandchildren, because Sweden stood for opportunities and welfare unavailable in their home countries or any other countries in the world. Looking back, thanks to the trials and challenges, they had become wiser and stronger. For instance, one informant (No. 2) reflected on the profound challenge of his professional qualifications not being recognized, a barrier unique to his migrant status. He described a decade of underemployment as a “spiritual test”, ultimately leading him to find strength and new purpose in building a community association for fellow compatriots.

Several informants described their professions as a lifetime passion, something they strongly identified with – a skilled surgeon, a passionate dancer, an eminent athlete and a proficient negotiator. However, most preferred to identify themselves primarily as devoted parents. Several described how challenging it was to raise children in a new culture and how they had prioritized their children’s future as their own lifetime course in Sweden. After all the years of hard work and many sacrifices, they felt their mission completed and now it was time to relax and enjoy their children’s professional success. Their children’s success was regarded as an extension of their own success. Many used the expression “It’s going well for the kids” to illustrate their satisfaction with what they themselves had accomplished. As parents, they had played a crucial role in their children’s lives and now they had reached their vital goals in life through their children. They had been the pillars for their families, and they felt themselves still needed and respected by their children and grandchildren because they had their rich life experiences to share.

This insight of aging entailed a sense of urgency among the informants. They realised that life was not infinite, every moment counted and they must make the best of it. Their reflections and reactions upon the insight of aging could be summarized into four subcategories: taking care of my health, securing my finances, doing only what I like and meeting only those I care for and being responsive to my destiny.

The informants experienced aging as a mental win. “Yes, life at older age can be exciting, meaningful, and sometimes more fun than ever! You feel more, because you understand better, and therefore appreciate more” (No. 2). But aging means also physical losses. Some described that the insight of aging came upon them when their own parents became sick and disabled, became delirious or passed away. Others understood they were getting old when they discovered their body failing, like a knee turned a bit stiff or suddenly they needed medications to regulate their blood pressure or diabetes. All agreed that health was their priority now. Everything would stand and fall with health. They did their best to take care of their bodies by eating healthy and engaging in physical exercise but not in any extreme way that would make life boring.

Financial security was considered important by everyone. It would be no fun to live up to 100 years being poor, as one man put it. Several were still working full-time or part-time, and they had planned how many more years they must work to retire with good pension. Majority of the nine pensioners had low pensions because they had not worked long time enough in Sweden. However, most informants said they were happy with their finance. No one complained about money or experienced that it impacted his/her life in any significant way, since thanks to the generous Swedish welfare system, healthcare and elderly care are almost free of charge.

On one hand, life became freer with age, with fewer “must-dos”, allowing them to finally live as they wished and complete things they had not had time for before. On the other hand, life became more conscious, and time more precious. The informants noted that they now cared much more about their own thoughts, feelings and the essentials and much less about what others might think of them or trivial formalities. The same with social interaction. Although everyone valued friendship and social community highly and most had good social connections, they preferred to spend most of their time with their families and a few close friends, with people they cared for and things they liked to do.

There was a large portion of understanding and acceptance toward life and death: “Death is impending, I am probably one step closer to death than I am to life” (No. 12). Another exclaimed, with laughter, “I may actually die at any moment” (No. 9). It appeared that the awareness of impending death and the expression of this awareness was both liberating and motivating, encouraging them to fully embrace living in the moment. Six of the informants were practicing Christians and they described religion as the important guiding light throughout their lives. Two described everything happening in their lives as “God’s will.”

Some had started to take concrete steps to prepare for old age. One man, together with his wife, was renovating their home by building a bathroom on the ground floor to ensure they could live there for as long as possible. One woman, along with her husband, was trying to sell off some properties to simplify their lives. Some were planning to move abroad after retirement, living in a sunny place with their partners and a few close friends.

They did have fears too. Their major fear was to lose their independence some day when their bodies would fail them, leaving them dependent on others. When that day came, most would prefer their children to send them to the municipal nursing homes, even though that was nothing they looked forward to, and they would not take that step until necessary.

The informants were living life fully at the present. When asked “what is good aging for you” or “what’s your plan for aging”, the most common answer was “just keep living because I enjoy living.” They summarized their present living experiences in the following subcategories: enjoying everyday activities, living with double assets and living with my family.

Irrespective of age, none of the informants directly described himself/herself as an older person or felt old. They understood that they were seen and treated as they were old, but they themselves felt that they were the same persons that they had always been, because they were still living as they used to and still enjoying the little things in everyday life. Some worked, full time or part time, others went for daily walks, picked mushrooms and berries in the forests, spent time with their children and grandchildren, met friends and played golf or went bowling with friends, worked as volunteers for their church or clubs, decorated their homes, cooked and made their own juice from berries, read books, started online course with friends to discuss Chinese medicine, made small trips to discover Sweden, chatted almost daily with their children and their relatives in their home countries and, if not for the pandemic, had been training in gyms, went salsa dancing or traveled to their home countries or elsewhere in the world.

All the informants spent their childhood and youth in their home countries. They still preserved many of their lifestyles from their childhood even though they had also adapted to the Swedish way of life after many years in the country. Food was an important issue. It was not only about loving memories from childhood but also about preserving culture and tradition. Cooking food and serving food from their home country was described as a family feast. They were happy and relieved when they found their children and grandchildren, who were grown up in Sweden, also appreciate the food from their home country. They experienced themselves as a perfect combination of their original culture and the Swedish culture. Most informants considered themselves well integrated into the Swedish society. That is, they “behaved just like Swedes and no longer felt like immigrants” (No. 5). Sweden was their home, because home was where their children and grandchildren were and going to be:

Most informants emphasized that family relationships were the most important for them, and that family should stick together forever. Eleven informants were married and most had lived with their spouses since they were married in their 20s. One had just celebrated a 60th and another a 50th wedding anniversary: “She [my wife] is my right hand. It feels like we are made for each other” (No. 5). A few informants said “daddy” and “mommy” when they addressed their spouses and one man described himself as his wife’s third child – a demonstration of a long and happy marriage where the couples have grown up together and become each other’s soulmates and best friends. Most informants had, to their delight, very close relations with their children and grandchildren. One woman described the role of family like this:

Spending time with loved ones and passing on their legacy to the next generation were described as their purpose in life. Some described the only thing missing in their lives now was grandchildren: “I am waiting for my grandchildren. I want to meet my grandchildren before I die” (Nos. 3, 7 and 14). Majority already had grandchildren. They were looking forward to meeting their grandchildren more often, being with them, doing things together with them and hopefully developing their relationship into intergenerational friendship and solidarity. “The time you spend with them is love” (No. 14). They also wished to impart sound values, perspectives and habits to their grandchildren, teaching them skills they had once excelled in or activities they had loved in their youth – in essence, passing on the best they had to offer.

While this narrative of strong family bonds was dominant, a few informants expressed a sense of intergenerational distance. One woman noted, “My children are fully Swedish … they are kind, but they don’t truly understand my life or my heart” (No. 13).

aging is a profound life transition, often marked by uncertainty that compels individuals to reinterpret their roles and purpose. This need for sense-making is especially critical for older migrants, who must navigate the confluence of two major transitions: aging and migration. Our study demonstrates that Weick’s (1995) sense-making theory offers a powerful framework for understanding how this group constructs meaning. This lens moves beyond a predominant focus on vulnerability to reveal underlying processes of adaptation, resilience and resource mobilization. By applying this theory within a grounded methodology, we uncover the cognitive and narrative processes through which older migrants forge a coherent aging identity. Crucially, our findings illustrate that these perceptions are not fixed but are part of an ongoing, negotiated process where meanings are continually reassessed within changing contexts. Underpinning this model is the notion of an achieved state of being, which we conceptualize as a synthesis of identity, control and belonging. Ultimately, this framework validates the unique and often overlooked journey of building a new life and a sense of home in later adulthood, an experience that distinguishes this population’s psychosocial development from that of their peers in established communities.

Our findings present a compelling contrast to mainstream research on older migrants, which often emphasizes health disparities and socioeconomic disadvantages. While those challenges are real and significant, the narratives in this study were dominated by strength and well-being. However, it is critical to interpret this resilience not as an inherent trait of “successful aging” but as an outcome that is highly contingent on resources and context. The informants’ ability to frame their migration background as a “double asset” and leverage strong familial support was facilitated by their relatively good health, absence of major mobility obstructions and robust familiar networks. Their sense-making was a negotiation, where positive retrospection on their journey provided identity reassurance precisely because they were not concurrently grappling with severe health or economic crises. This narrative of struggle and sacrifice thus opposes the “double jeopardy” hypothesis (Dowd and Bengtson, 1978) for this specific group, suggesting instead a model of “double integration” that is negotiable and deeply dependent on their circumstantial resources.

It is crucial to situate these negotiated experiences within the Swedish context. The universal welfare system, guaranteeing access to healthcare and providing a basic pension, acts as a critical foundational security that mitigates the material precarity often associated with aging and migration. This institutional safety net allowed informants to focus their cognitive and emotional energy on the higher-order processes of sense-making and relationship-building, rather than on sheer survival. The security provided by the state forms the silent, enabling backdrop against which their personal resilience and family capital could effectively flourish. This context was a nonnegotiable prerequisite for the positive sense-making observed, underscoring that the process and its outcomes are inextricably linked to structural privilege.

The categories illustrate the dynamic and context-dependent process of sense-making. Making sense of my situation reflects the enactment phase, where individuals, from a position of security, actively manage the equivocality of aging through acceptance and adaptation. This attitude, akin to what Erikson and Erikson (1997) described as “informed and detached concern for life itself in the face of death”, was an attainable perspective that granted them a capacity to engage with the present.

The outcome of this process is captured in: living in the moment with a sense of belonging. Here, informants derived pleasure from everyday activities and cherished social relations. Their strong family bonds and sense of bi-cultural connectedness challenge the traditional notion of “the marginal man” (Park, 1928) and highlight the role of social support as a paramount factor in their experience of aging. Furthermore, the contemplation of legacy and generativity provided a powerful sense of purpose. It is important to note that this positive outcome represents one possible pathway in the sense-making process, a pathway that was negotiable and accessible specifically because of their secure contextual footing.

It is important to note that the emergent theory of a “quest for life and its meaning” reflects a predominantly positive sense-making process. The absence of more negative narratives, such as profound despair or isolation, in our data is likely a feature of our self-selected sample, which consisted of individuals who were socially engaged enough to participate and who may have already reached a stage of reconciliation with their life course.

In conclusion, this study demonstrates that for older migrants in Sweden, the process of sensemaking – when facilitated by institutional security, familial support and personal resources – enables the construction of a coherent, purposeful and positive aging narrative. These findings underscore that perceptions of aging are not fixed but are actively negotiated, with the ability to craft a positive narrative being profoundly shaped by an individual’s health, economic standing and social capital. Consequently, this study illuminates a specific pathway of resilient aging. Future research should intentionally seek to include more isolated or vulnerable individuals to explore the full spectrum of aging experiences among migrant populations.

The implications of this study are threefold. Theoretically, it argues for a paradigm shift in migration and aging studies away from a default vulnerability perspective toward a more nuanced sense-making approach that acknowledges both agency and the critical, negotiable role of context. Methodologically, it highlights the importance of investigating the subjective dimensions of aging. Practically, it underscores the critical importance of social support systems, both formal (state welfare) and informal (family networks), in promoting well-being in later life. Policies aimed at supporting older migrants must be designed to strengthen these social capitals for all, recognizing that the ability to build a positive aging identity is not equally available to everyone. For healthcare and social care professionals, this means regarding older migrants as resourceful individuals while also being attuned to the contextual factors that may hinder their sense-making processes.

Limitations of this study directly inform its nuanced conclusions. The potential sampling biases, including the informants’ long residency, good health and strong family support, mean the findings illustrate a specific, resource-enabled pathway of sense-making. They therefore warrant caution in generalizing. Future research should investigate how these sense-making processes differ for more socially vulnerable older migrants, such as those with shorter residency, weaker family ties, poor health, mobility impairment or more recent refugee cohorts. Such research would further illuminate the negotiable nature of aging perceptions explored here.

The study was approved by the Swedish National Ethical Review Authority (Nos. 202005672 and 20210955). Numbers have been used to protect the informants’ anonymity. Written informed consent from informants was obtained prior to interviews. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Anna Zhou contributed to the study design, data collection, data analysis and wrote the manuscript. Ingrid Hellström, Susanne Roos and Åsa Larsson Ranada provided research supervision and refined the study design. All authors did critical reading of the manuscript and gave suggestions during the writing process. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.