IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14882.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Older Immigrants' New Poverty Risk in Scandinavian Welfare States?

Author

Listed:
  • Gustafsson, Björn Anders

    (Göteborg University)

  • Jakobsen, Vibeke

    (VIVE - The Danish Centre for Applied Social Science)

  • Mac Innes, Hanna

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Pedersen, Peder J.

    (Aarhus University)

  • Österberg, Torun

    (University of Gothenburg)

Abstract

Many European high-income countries face a rapid increase in the number of immigrants from low- and middle-income countries reaching the normal pension age. Thus, it is increasingly relevant to ask: how are older migrants from such countries faring? Here we study poverty rates and determinants of poverty among natives and persons born in Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Turkey living in Denmark or Sweden in 2010. Income data on all such persons aged 65 to 82 living in the two destination countries are analysed. In both Denmark and Sweden, we report much higher poverty rates among the immigrants studied than among natives. Estimated probability models show that being poor is related to a person's education, family status and age, as well as year of arrival in the destination country and the labour market and his or her residential status at the age of 55. However, the labour market in the destination country at the time of arrival also matter. Persons born in Yugoslavia or Turkey who had immigrated to Denmark during the '70s and '80s were more likely to be in poverty in 2010 that their counterparts with the same characteristics who had immigrated to Sweden.

Suggested Citation

  • Gustafsson, Björn Anders & Jakobsen, Vibeke & Mac Innes, Hanna & Pedersen, Peder J. & Österberg, Torun, 2021. "Older Immigrants' New Poverty Risk in Scandinavian Welfare States?," IZA Discussion Papers 14882, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14882
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14882.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlsson, Magnus & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2007. "Evidence of ethnic discrimination in the Swedish labor market using experimental data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 716-729, August.
    2. Olof Åslund & Lena Hensvik & Oskar Nordström Skans, 2014. "Seeking Similarity: How Immigrants and Natives Manage in the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(3), pages 405-441.
    3. Heisig, Jan Paul & Lancee, Bram & Radl, Jonas, 2018. "Ethnic inequality in retirement income: a comparative analysis of immigrant-native gaps in Western Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 38(10), pages 1963-1994.
    4. Lena Nekby, 2006. "The emigration of immigrants, return vs onward migration: evidence from Sweden," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 197-226, June.
    5. Vibeke Jakobsen & Tomas Korpi & Thomas Lorentzen, 2019. "Immigration and Integration Policy and Labour Market Attainment Among Immigrants to Scandinavia," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(2), pages 305-328, May.
    6. Stephen P. Jenkins, 2020. "Perspectives on Poverty in Europe. Following in Tony Atkinson’s Footsteps," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 129-155, March.
    7. Henkens, Kene & van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Ekerdt, David J. & Hershey, Douglas A. & Hyde, Martin & Radl, Jonas & van Solinge, Hanna & Zacher, Hannes, 2017. "What we need to know about retirement : Pressing issues for the coming decade," Other publications TiSEM f15b17d9-e1c3-47db-b249-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Lih‐Shing Chan & Kee‐Lee Chou, 2016. "Immigration, living arrangement and the poverty risk of older adults in Hong Kong," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 247-258, July.
    9. Henkens, Kène & van Dalen, Hendrik P. & Ekerdt, David J. & Hershey, Douglas A. & Hyde, Martin & Radl, Jonas & van Solinge, Hanna & Wang, Mo & Zacher, Hannes, 2018. "What We Need to Know About Retirement: Pressing Issues for the Coming Decade," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 58(5), pages 805-812.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefan Eriksson & Per Johansson & Sophie Langenskiöld, 2017. "What is the right profile for getting a job? A stated choice experiment of the recruitment process," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 803-826, September.
    2. van Dijk, Mathijs A. & van Dalen, Hendrik P. & Hyde, Martin, 2020. "Who bears the brunt? The impact of banking crises on younger and older workers," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    3. de la Rica, Sara & Glitz, Albrecht & Ortega, Francesc, 2013. "Immigration in Europe: Trends, Policies and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 7778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Olof Åslund & Oskar Nordströum Skans, 2012. "Do Anonymous Job Application Procedures Level the Playing Field?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(1), pages 82-107, January.
    5. Hendrik P. van Dalen & Kène Henkens, 2019. "Do stereotypes about older workers change? A panel study on changing attitudes of managers," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(5), pages 535-550, December.
    6. Hendrik P. Dalen & Kène Henkens, 2018. "The Making and Breaking of Trust in Pension Providers: An Empirical Study of Pension Participants," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(3), pages 473-491, July.
    7. Mădălina-Gabriela ANGHEL & Dragoș-Alexandru HAȘEGAN, 2021. "Statistical analysis on population ageing," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(627), S), pages 83-96, Summer.
    8. Mats Hammarstedt & Chizheng Miao, 2020. "Self-employed immigrants and their employees: evidence from Swedish employer-employee data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 35-68, March.
    9. van Dijk, Mathijs A. & van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Hyde, Martin, 2020. "Who bears the brunt? : The impact of banking crises on younger and older workers," Other publications TiSEM c200074b-5880-4a8c-9d1a-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Henkens, Kene, 2018. "Do people really want freedom of choice? : Assessing preferences of pension holders," Other publications TiSEM 448e8a93-9ded-401f-9da0-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Gustafsson, Björn Anders, 2011. "Disparities in Social Assistance Receipt between Immigrants and Natives in Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 6129, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Bratsberg, Bernt & Raaum, Oddbjørn & Røed, Knut, 2014. "Labour Migrant Adjustments in the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 8291, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Åslund, Olof & Forslund, Anders & Liljeberg, Linus, 2017. "Labour market entry of non-Labour migrants – Swedish evidence," Working Paper Series 2017:15, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    14. Kati Kadarik & Emily Miltenburg & Sako Musterd & John Östh, 2021. "Country-of-origin-specific economic capital in neighbourhoods: Impact on immigrants’ employment opportunities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1201-1218, August.
    15. Fang, Tony & Zhang, Tingting & Hartley, John, 2023. "Examining the Determinants of Managers' Hiring Attitudes Towards Immigrant Workers: Evidence from an Employer Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 16219, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Arne Lowden & Aline Silva-Costa & Lucia Rotenberg & Estela M. L. Aquino & Maria de Jesus M. Fonseca & Rosane H. Griep, 2021. "Does Work after Retirement Matter? Sleep Features among Workers in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-10, April.
    17. Han, Sae Hwang, 2021. "Health consequences of retirement due to non-health reasons or poor health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    18. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Henkens, Kene, 2017. "The Making and Breaking of Trust in Pension Providers : An Empirical Study of Dutch Pension Participants," Other publications TiSEM cb47a5d0-d1c2-4f4e-8d6d-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Aske Juul Lassen & Kenneth Mertz & Lars Holm & Astrid Pernille Jespersen, 2020. "Retirement Rhythms: Retirees’ Management of Time and Activities in Denmark," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, September.
    20. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Henkens, Kene, 2018. "The making and breaking of trust in pension providers : An empirical study of pension participants," Other publications TiSEM a23d8c7c-5857-48ee-a1ab-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    older immigrants; Denmark; Sweden; poverty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14882. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.