In 2019, 44.9 million immigrants (foreign-born individuals) accounts for 14 percent of the U.S. national population. Nearly 17 percent of them belonged to the age group of 65 years and older, higher than the 16 percent of the U.S. born in this age group. Apart from that, the average age of immigrants (including newly arrived immigrants and established immigrants) increased from 39 years to 46 years between 2000 and 2019. This is more than twice as fast as the average age increase for the nation’s overall population. One explanation for this change is that immigrants who arrived in the 80s and 90s are aging. Furthermore, the countries that most immigrants came from are aging fast.
Overall demographic change is not the only contributing factor. Older age groups of new immigrants have seen a significant increase. In 2019, the age group of 50 and older comprised 15 percent of all newcomers; in 2000, this share was 8 percent, almost half of that. So, there is another layer to this change. More and more senior immigrants came to the U.S. for family unification under the sponsorship of their children. They are here not for education and career opportunities, but for family reasons such as helping raise grandchildren. A small fraction of senior immigrants came to the U.S. as refugees.
Many of these elder immigrants are financially and emotionally dependent on their children. Most of them do not have jobs or stable incomes, because they are here to provide household support to their families and relatives. Although according to the American Immigration Council, the majority of immigrants (69 percent) can speak English “well” or “very well”, Senior immigrants are not among them. They are faced with language barriers and cultural differences and are almost isolated from society. For example, many of them don’t know how to seek medical help without an English-speaking family member by their side, thus limiting their access to the healthcare system. At Translators for Elders (TFE), our mission is to help the elderly overcome language barriers by offering translation services such as translating documents containing medical, immigration, legal, tax, utility, or financial information.
Reference:
Batalova, Jeanne Batalova Cecilia Esterline And Jeanne. “Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in The.” migrationpolicy.org, 29 Aug. 2022, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states.
McHugh, Patrick. “Immigrants Coming to America at Older Ages.” CIS.org, 29 Mar. 2021, cis.org/Report/Immigrants-Coming-America-Older-Ages.
“New Older Immigrants in the U.S.: Challenges, Coping, and Intervention Strategies.” ASA Generations, 23 Mar. 2022, generations.asaging.org/new-older-immigrants-us.
“Immigrants in the United States.” American Immigration Council, 21 Sept. 2021, generations.asaging.org/new-older-immigrants-us.
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