This article explores qualitatively how and to what extent religion protects older Romanian migrants from loneliness. The analysis is based on fieldwork research in two Swiss cantons and in neighbouring France among 30 Romanian migrants aged 57+. The sample is heterogeneous made up of persons who fled the communist regime in their youth and others who migrated later in life for work or to be with their families. The fieldwork research points towards a population that is coping successfully with migration and other challenges many of whom did not report feelings of loneliness. In an increasingly laic occidental world many of the Romanian participants in our research appear to be religious and go to church; this often protects them from loneliness whether they migrated 30 years or seven months ago. The article concludes with study limitations implications and directions for further research.

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) represents a unique clinical challenge for patients and health care providers due to unclear etiology and lack of specific treatment. Characteristic patterns of behavior and cognitions might be related to how CFS patients respond to management strategies. Methods: This study investigates control beliefs in a population-based sample of 113 CFS patients, 264 individuals with insufficient symptoms or fatigue for CFS diagnosis (ISF), and 124 well individuals. Results: Controlling for personality and coping, individuals with low confidence in their problem-solving capacity were almost 8 times more likely to be classified as ISF and 5 times more likely to be classified as CFS compared to being classified as well. However there was a wide distribution within groups and individuals with “low confidence” scores were found in 31.7% of Well individuals. Individuals with low levels of anxiety and who were more outgoing were less likely to be classified as ISF or CFS. Conclusions: These findings suggest that fostering control beliefs could be an important focus for developing behavioral management strategies in CFS and other chronic conditions.

Gibt es ein Rezept für lebenslange glückliche Partnerschaften? Warum zerbrechen viele jahrzehntelange Partnerschaften? Sind späte Scheidungen Krisen, die das Tor für einen guten Neubeginn darstellen, oder vielmehr der Anfang chronischen Leidens? Warum bleibt, allen Herausforderungen zum Trotz, die Mehrheit der Paare zusammen? Gibt es ein Rezept für stabile und glückliche Ehen, oder ist letztlich alles nur Glückssache? Die Scheidungsraten bei Langzeitehen sind in den letzten Jahrzehnten stark gestiegen. Scheiden lassen sich nicht primär die Jungen, sondern Frauen und Männer mittleren Alters - also zwischen 45 und 65 Jahren. Wir wissen erstaunlich wenig darüber, denn die wissenschaftliche Forschung fokussierte bis vor kurzem fast ausschließlich Scheidungen von Paaren mit unmündigen Kindern. Genau diese Wissenslücke will dieses Buch schließen. Thematisiert werden zunächst der Wandel und die Bedeutung der Ehe über die Jahrhunderte. Es wird gezeigt, dass unabhängig von der historischen Zeit die Tatsache bestehen bleibt, dass intime Beziehungen existenziell für Wohlbefinden und Gesundheit sind und nach wie vor angestrebt werden. Basierend auf Resultaten einer landesweiten Schweizer Studie und illustriert mit vielen Fallbeispielen, leuchtet das Buch das Phänomen der späten Scheidung aus, erörtert Gründe, Auswirkungen und Bewältigungsstrategien. Das Buch gibt Antworten auf häufig gestellte, bislang aber kaum beantwortete Fragen, regt zum Denken an und eröffnet neue und ermutigende Perspektiven.

This guest editorial introduces a special issue entitled “Older migrants: (im)mobilities of ageing.” The movement of people is a core concern of population geographers, and the last decade has witnessed a “mobilities turn.” This literature has given much attention to younger people who move, but thus far has largely ignored people who migrate in later life, or whose previous migrations significantly shape their present experiences of ageing. The articles in this special issue address this lacuna, drawing on different categories of older international migrants to and from various European countries. More specifically, the special issue’s ambition is to respond to 2 questions. What added value does the “new mobilities paradigm” contribute to the study of older migrants, who may have migrated long ago or be less mobile today than in the past? And conversely, what added value does studying oldermigrants contribute to the mobilities paradigm?While acknowledging earlier critiques of this paradigm, we contend that the mobilities perspective helps to elucidate the experiences of oldermigrants, through its insistence on the capacity formobility—whether physical, virtual, communicative, or imaginative—at diverse scales, including but certainly not limited to international crossborder moves. Mobility thus conceived is an important but neglected factor for older people to achieve better quality of life. We also argue that research with older migrants offers rich potential for refining the mobilities paradigm, for example, in terms of “mobility regimes” governing access to health care and social protection, to which older migrants may be particularly exposed.