Preliminary Programme

Wed 22 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Thu 23 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Fri 24 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Sat 25 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

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Wednesday 22 March 2006 10:45
M-2 ETH03 Ethnic Elders, family, work and retirement
Room M
Network: Ethnicity and Migration Chair: Ulla Rosén
Organizers: - Discussant: Ulla Rosén
Anita Böcker : Residence and social security strategies of former guest workers: The case of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands
An increasing proportion of the labour migrants attracted into northern Europe during the so-called recruitment period have reached pensionable age or will do so in a few years. Little is known about how these immigrants organise their lives and their social and financial security after retirement, the factors that influence ... (Show more)
An increasing proportion of the labour migrants attracted into northern Europe during the so-called recruitment period have reached pensionable age or will do so in a few years. Little is known about how these immigrants organise their lives and their social and financial security after retirement, the factors that influence their choices, and the problems and dilemmas they are confronted with. This paper focuses on older Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. The first part will describe and analyse Dutch government’s policies toward this category of immigrants. The second part will present preliminary results from qualitative interviews with Turkish immigrants. Due to low incomes and a lack of contributing years, many Turkish immigrants have built up inadequate pension rights. On the other hand, their social networks for provision of assistance in retirement often include family links in the country of origin as well as in the host country. Reaching retirement age, they must choose from different residential strategies: remaining in the country of immigration, moving back to the country of origin, or spending part of the year in the ‘home’ and part of the year in the ‘host’ country. The paper will describe and analyse the choices and decisions of these elderly immigrants. A central question is how and to what extent their decisions are conditioned by migration rules and rules of export of pensions and social security income. (Show less)

Lisa Dillon, Jon Moen : Nativity, ethnicity and men’s retirement in turn-of-the-century Canada and the United States
Since the 1980s, historians and economists have debated the extent and nature of male retirement in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Debates have centered on whether modernization rendered older workers obsolete or helped them stay on the job longer, whether growing ageism discriminated against older workers, and ... (Show more)
Since the 1980s, historians and economists have debated the extent and nature of male retirement in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Debates have centered on whether modernization rendered older workers obsolete or helped them stay on the job longer, whether growing ageism discriminated against older workers, and in what ways unemployment, farming, Union Army pensions and children’s earnings facilitated or forced retirement (David Hackett Fischer, Andrew Achenbaum, William Graebner, Carol Haber, Brian Gratton, Roger Ransom, Richard Sutch, Chulhee Lee, Dora Costa, Jon Moen). Two questions that remain are: which men were truly retired at the turn of the century, and was retirement associated with privilege or with deprivation?

An intriguing feature in this debate is the role of ethnicity. Just as in child labor, work in old age had ethnic overtones. In the United States and Canada, privilege and discrimination were associated with ethnicity and nativity--native-born Americans and Anglo-Canadians often experienced more favourable economic circumstances than their immigrant or French-Canadian counterparts. Examining retirement in the context of Canada and the United States allows us to refine our understanding of the nature of retirement and the relationship between retirement, ethnicity and immigrant status. The proposed paper will first examine men who definitively represented themselves as retired: men who entered the letter ‘r’ for retired next to their normal occupation on the 1901 Census of Canada. This provides a novel and powerful tool for reconsidering the debate over retirement by comparing 1901 Canadian retirees to their 1900 U.S. counterparts, and by assessing the effects of ethnicity and nativity on their retirement status (Show less)

Brian Gratton, Myron P. Gutmann : The Perils of Family Support: Aging Immigrants
The early 20th century witnessed the rapid aging of the first wave of immigrants to the United States, who began arriving in the middle of the previous century. In 1910 there were about 700,000 persons of German origin aged 50 and over, but by 1920 that had trebled, reaching nearly ... (Show more)
The early 20th century witnessed the rapid aging of the first wave of immigrants to the United States, who began arriving in the middle of the previous century. In 1910 there were about 700,000 persons of German origin aged 50 and over, but by 1920 that had trebled, reaching nearly 2 million. Among the Swedish, the 80,000 in 1910 became 280,000 ten years later. Similar processes of aging, delayed by the timing of immigration, can be seen for those who arrived later: among Italians, the 250,000 in 1920 aged 50 and greater became 800,000 in 1940.

Neither wave had access to the level of public support now available; the first in particular had to rely on family, work or savings in old age. While most ethnic mythology claims deep systems of familial support, the actual level of extended households and other family adjustments varied greatly among ethnic groups. In this paper we examine ethnic differences in family support of the aged, and then evaluate the primary factors in creating extended households and independent living. We also compare ethnic groups to both native whites and African-Americans. While we conclude that, net of economic and demographic factors, ethnicity had a minor role in household structure, we do argue that it had a major role in changing the political landscape regarding social security. Thus, we argue that ethnic aging had consequences in political agitation for public old age support (Show less)

Jay Kleinberg : European Women, Age and the U.S. Labor Market, 1880 – 1990
During the course of the twentieth century, middle-aged women in the United States redefined their economic and social roles in response to changing demographic structures, attitudes towards child labor, and the balance between production and consumption. European women had highly varied work experiences, and distinct concepts of the roles of ... (Show more)
During the course of the twentieth century, middle-aged women in the United States redefined their economic and social roles in response to changing demographic structures, attitudes towards child labor, and the balance between production and consumption. European women had highly varied work experiences, and distinct concepts of the roles of women in the labor force, dependent greatly upon their region of origin. This paper explores the way that immigrant women of different ethnic groups in the United States participated in the labor market. It contrasts the employment patterns of native and foreign-born white women, aged 40 to 64, by a number of key demographic variables. These include their marital status and relation to the head of household, the presence and ages of their children, their husband’s occupation, and their own occupations. It differentiates between women of different nativities in order to determine whether all middle-aged women participated in these changes or if they were peculiar to some ethnic groups. (Show less)



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