Afrikaans Grandparents in Sydney

[Jannie]

Hi all,

My sister and I are discussing long term options for our parents, 68 and 71. One of the options is to bring them to Australia (me in Sydney or her in Canberra) to come live with us. I was wondering how many parents in their 60’s and 70’s are living in Sydney? How many Afrikaans? Are there any organised groups for people of their age and background? Are there enough people to make such an organised group viable if one is to get something off the ground? My parents are bilingual but their confidence in their own English ability is not strong enough that they will build an English social network themselves. Neither is also ever the bell of the ball at social events. They are good old school conservative Afrikaans senior citizens. We realise if we bring them over it is going to take hard work to integrate them in whatever possible way. Has anyone done this? We want to avoid a situation where the only social interaction they have is only with us and their grandkids in Canberra.

Any comments and responses appreciated

Thanks

Jannie

[Stell]

WOW this is a tough one ! The main question here is do your parents WANT to come ??? If so you know that all a lot of older people require is their family and a feeling of security. There are a lot of people from other countries that don't speak English living here happily and your friends would be their friends too and surely there are a lot of older Afrikaans people living in Aus ? I know my Dad loves the freedom he always feels when visiting us here and he would love to come and live here but sadly as we're the only ones of our family here there is no way we can get him in ! Good luck x