Kevin Sanly Putera
Older Indonesian immigrants actively negotiate their multicultural identities and family roles in ways associated with sustained psychological well-being. Role performance sustains meaning, cultural continuity and social purpose in later life. Aged care and policy frameworks should attend to these role-enabling dimensions as central to well-being among older immigrants from CALD backgrounds.
OBJECTIVES: Australia is expecting a growing ageing population from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. This study explored how older Indonesian immigrants in Australia negotiate their multicultural identities and family roles, and how participants experienced these negotiations in relation to their psychological well-being.
METHODS: In-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 older Indonesian immigrants (aged 65 years and over) residing in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling via Indonesian community networks. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's inductive thematic analysis with adherence to COREQ guidelines.
RESULTS: Three themes emerged: (1) navigating belonging between cultural contexts, describing participants' ongoing evaluation of Australia and Indonesia across affective, practical and identity dimensions; (2) actively exercising heritage multicultural identities, capturing how participants deliberately maintained, rediscovered and performed their heritage identities through personal agency, cultural anchors and diaspora community engagement; and (3) negotiating roles and authority within family, documenting caregiving, moral guidance and heritage cultural transmission as the roles through which elder identity was enacted and experienced as meaningful. Cultural identity was not a fixed attribute but a continuously negotiated practice, enacted through roles in family and diaspora contexts.
CONCLUSIONS: Older Indonesian immigrants actively negotiate their multicultural identities and family roles in ways associated with sustained psychological well-being. Role performance sustains meaning, cultural continuity and social purpose in later life. Aged care and policy frameworks should attend to these role-enabling dimensions as central to well-being among older immigrants from CALD backgrounds.