The perceived meaning of eldercare among the sandwich generation of Koreans in Korea and Korean immigrants in the United States

Abstract Despite a growing body of elder care literature on the Korean population, how the so-called sandwich generation perceives and practices filial norms in the Korean and United States context has not been clearly addressed. Using data from in-depth interviews with 100 Koreans and 136 Korean immigrant adults, this study explores how sandwich generation Koreans and Korean immigrants in the United States perceive filial obligation for their aging parents, what they do to prepare for their own later life and what they expect from their children when they become older and need care from others. The findings indicate that almost all of the study participants maintain traditional notions of filial piety, but they show ambivalent attitudes toward the practice of filial obligation and their expectation from their own children in their later lives in Korea and the United States. Depending on the individual or familial factors, their filial practices have adapted to changing demographic and social realities, constructing the new forms of filial piety.