Learning to live: Older Korean migrants’ life-long learning experience in New Zealand

Abstract

Learning is what makes us human and is critical to life quality. Researchers in lifelong learning field define learning as a lifelong activity reaching from the cradle until death. Knowledge is increasing at lightning speed in the 21st century. Consequently, people of every age and background put continuous effort into uncovering the information they need and mastering the ways of obtaining it to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Lifelong learning can be obtained through formal and informal education. While the field is widely explored, there is little known about the learning of migrants living in a host country in general, especially in gerontology. This study addresses this gap by exploring the learning experiences of older South Korean migrants currently resident in New Zealand. While the importance and the value of learning for the ageing population are emphasised and is often discussed as part of healthy ageing, as people age, they may struggle to get themselves actively moving daily, and this affects learning opportunities. Increasing attention is being focused on the growing numbers over 65 (senior citizens) in New Zealand. However, little attention has been given to the need for increasing numbers of migrants in this category. Ageing involves different experiences and varying complex issues; it may cause more difficulties if one has to go through the ageing process in a country where a person is newly settled that has different cultures and beliefs, and language. The participants in this study are 13 older South Korean migrants aged from over 60 to late 80, who have lived in New Zealand for at least five years. They shared their valuable in-depth stories of living in New Zealand as a migrant. Within the voices shared by those older Koreans, the study explored the kind of learning and social involvement that the participants have engaged with before and after their migration and their views on well-ageing were also identified. They shared their journeys of migrant life, how they tried to acculturate themselves into the host culture, and how they are ageing in this host country. Qualitative methods aligned with an interpretive approach and constructivist theory were applied to understand the life perceptions of older Koreans in the study with a semi-structured interview with each participant. Foley’s (2004) four categories of adult learning was imported as a theoretical framework. The following themes were identified through data analysis: (1) all participants held positive perceptions for learning; (2) language consumed the biggest capacity that hindered learning; (3) learning was a crucial facet in well-ageing and; (4) learning produced joy and positive energy in participants’ later-life. This thesis explores undiscovered later-life stories of minority migrants ageing in the host society and their need. Through the findings from this study, it is hoped that this study will enhance for more research around older Asian migrants’ experiences who moved to a host country in their later-life, which is also an important area that is often less focused.