Loneliness, Social Isolation and Elderly of Ethnic Minority Community: A Case of Hindustani Surinamese Community in The Hague, Netherlands

Elderly people are much more vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation due to loss of family, friends, income and mobility. This vulnerability be-comes more acute in the case of elderly belonging to ethnic minority be-cause of their lack of integration and participation in society. This scenario is more intense with the first generation elderly of ethnic minority community due to their low level of education and the subsequent language disadvantage which shrinks their opportunities to be part of larger society. This disadvantage increases their dependency on their children and the inability of the children in most cases to look after their needs, making them in the process more lonely and isolated. Relations with neighbours either from their own community or from other communities are also not very meaningful due to cultural, language and trust barriers. As Putnam (2007) puts in that diversity in society leads to more social isolation rather than triggering in-group and out-group division. There is a positive link between engagement with activities and the life satisfaction elderly draw out of it. Their dis-engagement from society is rather enforced than voluntary. Given the opportunity to participate through different facilities they show an increase in their life satisfaction with increased self-worth. However, having a social need and making social facilities available to fulfil those needs is not an end in itself for effective social participation. There is a need to ensure that the elderly do not lack the required social skill to bring out fulfilling experience out of these social participations, otherwise, they would end up being more lonely and isolated. In multi-ethnic societies the role of the community networks becomes very crucial in providing effective voice and support to the disadvantaged members especially elderly within the community. How-ever, in ethnically heterogeneous societies to promote social capital and cohesion in the society, the dilemma of promoting ‘bonding’ within the communities or ‘bridging’ amongst the communities remains largely unanswered, as, one can be achieved only at the cost of other.