Biomedicine and ‘Risky’ Retirement Destinations: Older Western Residents in Ubud, Bali

ABSTRACT

International retirement migration is often conflated with the generic emergence of a new stage in the life course, the third age. I describe how well-travelled, globally orientated retirees are drawn to and experience biomedical provision in ‘risky’ retirement destinations. Drawing on ethnographic research in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, I consider how older Western residents shape, share, and manage their health concerns in light of an Indonesian biomedical system that is transforming in the context of modern medical provision and an emerging retirement industry. Building on Rose and Novas’s notion of biological citizenship, I illustrate the ways in which Western retirees engage with multiple biomedical realities built around localized, symbolic distinctions between ‘hospital’ and ‘doctor,’ immigration frameworks, the transregional context of medical tourism, and broader concerns relating to change and overdevelopment in Ubud and Bali.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomedicine
• Bali
• international retirement migration
• mobility
• Western retirees

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was made possible through the support of an Early Career Researcher Grant and additional funding provided by the University of Melbourne.

Notes on contributors

Paul Green

Paul Green is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Melbourne. His current, longitudinal research project focuses on the lives and experiences of older Western migrants and retirees based in Southeast Asia.