| Abstract: | The relationships between the generations in Third World countries are changing as migration and industrialization erode traditional family responsibilities for supporting the elderly. It is no longer possible to assume that, as a matter of course, old people will be looked after by their families. Social change leads to an eroding of the support systems. The author finds growing evidence of this breakdown in Asia, particularly in Singapore, Hong Kong, and other highly industrialized centers. Singapore, for example, has reinstituted the compulsory study of filial piety in an attempt to push the younger generation into assuming its traditional responsibility toward the old. There has also been a significant decline in the status, prestige, and support given old people in Indonesia, although politicans insist that the family will always take care of its elderly. 2 reasons for this breakdown are 1) the impact of the mass media and 2) the increasing involvement of the younger generation in non-agricultural jobs which often involve a move to the city and away from dependence on a patriarch. Many Third World countries are in a twilight stage, between the traditionally strong structure of family support and government systems of social security. |
