ABSTRACT While formal social services are crucial for fostering social connections and enhancing well‐being, older long‐term Chinese immigrants often underutilise them. Moreover, the social lives of such immigrants in alternative social settings remain underexplored. This paper examines the social lives of Hong Kong immigrants aged 60 and older in casinos and churches in Australia, where most have lived for over 30 years with at least one child abroad or interstate. Findings from in‐depth interviews revealed that the informants often experienced loneliness owing to significant later‐life transitions, for example, widowhood or children migrating. Notably, much of their social engagement occurred outside ethno‐specific community organisations. Their participation in public social spaces like casinos and churches highlights the importance of these alternative settings as vital social hubs that can mitigate loneliness, challenging the emphasis on kinship and formal services in extant studies. Moreover, despite long‐term settlement, these older immigrants primarily engaged with the Cantonese‐speaking Hong Kong community, which remained central to their social networks. This study broadens our understanding of the social spaces crucial for enhancing older immigrants' well‐being and underscores the importance of considering subethnic and temporal dimensions in addressing their social needs.
Ngan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.