Navigating Dual Challenges: Healthy Ageing and Migration in Norway

Project summary

Ageing and migration are two global phenomena affecting health and social systems worldwide adding pressure on service delivery, workforce demands, resource allocation, and community cohesion. Norway faces these dual challenges with a growing number of older people and increasing population diversity due to migration, including forced migration. In 2024, 19% of the Norwegian population was over 65 years. Projections indicate that the number of immigrants in Norway aged 80 and over will increase fourfold within the next 20 years and fourteenfold by 2060. This demographic shift calls for new strategies to ensure healthy ageing for all. We use WHO's definition of healthy ageing as developing and maintaining functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age. Little is known about migrant subgroups in Norway and their health needs. Foreign-born older adults who have experienced forced migration represent a particularly vulnerable group whose needs should be better understood and addressed. In this project we use the term foreign-born older people who experienced forced migration to refer to persons over 65 years who currently live in Norway, who were born outside Norway and who were forced to flee their home country due to the war, civil unrest, or fear of persecution. This term includes refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants. Forced displacement impacts the health and healthcare interactions of foreign-born older adults, yet this complex phenomenon has been understudied and undertheorized. The dynamic interplay between the sequelae of forced displacement, ageing, and the navigation of a healthcare system, is a social process for which no single, established theory offers sufficient explanation. This research is therefore timely and critical, as it responds directly to key Norwegian strategies on ageing and migrant health equity and aligns with major global action from the WHO, UNHCR, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of this project is to develop a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) explaining how forced displacement impacts healthy ageing and the use of municipal health services among foreign-born older adults. This theory will then inform a co-creation process with municipal stakeholders to identify actionable and equitable strategies for healthcare service innovation.