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the role of senior citizens strengthens their social standing and identity and avoids the risk of isolation52.
Moreover, the transmission of memories and knowledge is closely linked to the village dimension, as are the protection and recognition of the role of the elderly. The elaboration and transfer of inherited knowledge and culture, entrusted to the elderly in past societies, is still of vital importance for humanity today, in order to preserve the identity of a territory and a community over the years. The distances between the places where elderly people live and those where they receive services, social, economic, cultural and intergenerational distances, and last but not least distances between material and spiritual needs, are among the main difficulties to be resolved. This in order to reverse the negative perception of the Ageing Society, hopefully to be considered not as a burden, but an opportunity for a better society. Overcoming the physical distances between homes, workplaces and services, and the immaterial distances between different generations, social statuses, economic and cultural conditions, is a necessary key to deal with the ageing population. The challenge of migrations To talk about migratory phenomena in contemporary society requires some preliminary statements of principle: man is basically a migratory species. Most paleontologists, based on fossils that have been found, agree that the modern human species had its origin in the East African sub-Saharan region in the Pleistocene, i.e. from about 200 52
Ibidem, p. 28.
