This proposal describes the first phase of a longitudinal project exploring the role of ethnicity in the support networks of older people who have migrated to Florid after retirement. The importance of family in assisting older people living in community settings raises questions about the informal support networks of older people who migrate to Sunbelt retirement communities. Analysis of migration patterns suggests that deteriorating health motivates some older people to return to their communities of origin to bolster the resources available to meet their expanding needs. Return migration, however, is not the only strategy available for coping with increased frailty. Older people may instead seek to activate informal support systems in the new community. The proposed project will examine the role of shared ethnicity in generating patterns of mutual assistance within a Sunbelt retirement community. The proposed project will use survey research methods to gather data from retired Sunbelt migrants and from older people who age in place. To isolate the effects of particular dimensions of ethnicity and to separate the impact of ethnic identity from minority status, the research will involve a study of one European-American ethnic group. Data will be gathered from probability samples of (1) elderly Finnish-Americans who moved to Lake Worth/Lantana, Florida, after they retired and comparison groups of; 2) retired European-Americans who migrated to the same community but who are not part of an ethnic enclave; (3) retired Finnish- Americans who continue to live in the same age-integrated community Minnesota; and (4) retired European-Americans who continue to live in the same age-integrated community. The Finnish communities in both cities are residentially scattered but linked by formal organizations and informal friendship patterns. Studying a European-American ethnic group will provide insights into the meaning of ethnicity in the lives of people for whom ethnicity is an option rather than an ascribed characteristic. Many European ethnic groups have maintained cultural distinctiveness despite acculturation into the dominant society, but little is known about the ways in which this distinctiveness affects the experience of aging, particularly among second-generation elderly. The conclusions of this study can be applied to other European-American groups, especially to those whose major period of immigration was between 1880-1920 and whose elderly populations include large numbers of second- generation ethnics. The project described in this application will provide baseline data from which a follow-up study will assess the impact of ethnic concentration within helping networks and ethnic identification on the probability of return migration among these elderly Sunbelt migrants. This first phase, however, also stands on its own as a study of the role of ethnicity in the support networks of older migrants.
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