South Asian British Muslim older women in Greater Manchester : work attitudes and labour market behaviour in translocational life-courses

This thesis explores the older age work attitudes and labour market behaviour of South Asian British Muslim older women living in the Greater Manchester area in the UK. It has the precise purpose of addressing the overarching research question of, 'What are the attitudes and behaviour of South Asian British Muslim older women towards wage work and in the Greater Manchester labour market?'. The broader contexts of an ageing workforce, the high level of unemployment and economic inactivity of this particular ethnic minority female group in the UK and recent extended working lives policies in the UK have guided the overall design and empirical inquiry of the thesis. The findings of the thesis show that several socio-cultural and political factors have played critical roles in shaping these women's wage work attitudes and behaviour in the Greater Manchester labour market. In articulating the overall findings on their wage work attitudes and labour market behaviour, the levels of integration with the host country UK's society and labour market and the divergent processes of their physical, psychological and social ageing come to the fore, indicating a two-way process at work, namely their life-long participation in strong gendered roles within the family and community structures both pre- and post-migration as well as social and policy exclusion within the UK systems. The less encouraging and somewhat negative older age wage work attitudes of the cohort were marked by a lack of enthusiasm and motivation, which implies that their attitudes are likely to remain relatively unchanged in the foreseeable future where more participation by older workers, particularly older female workers in the UK labour market is expected. The thesis re-conceptualises the translocational positionality framework, and proposes a translocational spectrum in tracking and locating these migrant older women's life trajectories, and their social as well as labour market positions in the UK. It also conceptualises their ageing process in a new light and provides timely insights into an under-researched cohort's wage work attitudes and labour market behaviour that has implications for gender, migration, ageing and employment research as well as for policymaking of extended working lives. The thesis suggests that research on older females and migrant workers should involve a multi-pronged approach covering transnational, intersectional and life-course impacts and prospects.