Negotiating Loss Across Borders: the Impact of Migration on experiences of post-death rituals and bereavement for South Asian Migrants
Background
Commemorating the deceased person and upholding unique community customs, death practices and rituals are all symbolically crucial markers for the South Asian diaspora. However, reduced access to ethnic community networks and socio-political constraints in host countries restrict or alter the performance of customary death rituals, reshaping bereavement practices and potentially complicating grief among migrant populations.
Aims
Despite recognition that migration influences cultural practices and bereavement, limited research has examined how South Asian migrants experience bereavement and post-death rituals within Western systems and the extent to which host countries accommodate or oppress their needs.
Methods
A scoping review was undertaken with searches across PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar that yielded sixteen studies (2015–2025). Allan’s (2016) Critical Social Work Theory was utilized as conceptual framework and results were thematically analysed.
Results
Across studies, migrants sought to preserve traditional rites while negotiating intergenerational shifts, contested authenticity, and acculturation pressures. Host-country legislation and burial infrastructure constraints disrupted body disposal, repatriation decisions, and funerary placemaking. Transnational grieving, intensified during COVID-19, heightened experiences of distance. Despite the barriers, communities demonstrated adaptive resistance through digital rituals, mutual aid, and culturally grounded support networks.
Conclusion
The review extends Critical Social Work scholarship by demonstrating that transformations in South Asian migrant bereavement are not merely cultural adaptations, but are shaped by power, regulation and structural exclusion within host societies. While dominant socio-political systems constrain ritual continuity, migrants actively resist erasure through adaptive, community-led practices. The results call for anti-oppressive, community-led culturally responsive policy and social work interventions that recognise transnational identities and the political dimensions of death and mourning.
Recognition
- Awarded a mark of 92%
- Upcoming speaker presentation at the Gold Coast Social Work Congress 2026