Unskilled, Foreign, and Old
A Life Course Perspective on Immigrant Poverty
Abstract
Abstract. In order to increase our understanding of the financial disparity between older immigrants and their host-country peers, this article combines a cumulative dis/advantage analysis of immigrant life-course experiences while also attending to larger-scale, socioeconomic processes. The article combines qualitative interviews with quantitative register data from a cohort of older Turkish immigrants and compares their situation with that of their host-country peers. The analysis shows considerable inequalities in old age: While 1% of the ethnic majority live below OECD poverty levels, 29% of the immigrants do so. Their financially disadvantaged situation in late life results partly from the accumulation of a lifetime of disadvantages. Also important are the national rules that tie full social security pensions to length of residence in Denmark.
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