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How do Immigrants Fare in Retirement

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Abstract

The extensive literature documenting differences in wages between immigrants and US-born workers suggests immigrant households may enter retirement at a significant financial disadvantage relative to households headed by the native-born. However, little work has examined differences in retirement resources and retirement security between immigrant and native households. In this paper, we use data from the Health and Retirement Study, linked with restricted data from the Social Security Administration, to compare retirement resources between immigrant and native-born households. Our results suggest that while immigrants have lower levels of Social Security benefits than natives, they have higher levels of private net worth after controlling for education, age, race, and ethnicity. The estimated immigrant differentials vary a great deal by years in the US, with the most recent immigrants the least prepared for retirement.

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  • Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2013. "How do Immigrants Fare in Retirement," Department of Economics Working Papers 2012-07, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    • Handle: RePEc:wil:wileco:2012-07
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    1. repec:pri:cheawb:paper_oneil%20and%20tienda_ageimmigrationapril18 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2015. "The impact of the recession on the wealth of older immigrant and native households in the United States," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Pervi Sevak & Lucie Schmidt, 2008. "Immigrant-Native Fertility and Mortality Differentials in the United States," Working Papers wp181, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    4. Gustafsson, Björn Anders & Mac Innes, Hanna & Österberg, Torun, 2017. "Older People in Sweden Without Means: On the Importance of Age at Immigration for Being 'Twice Poor'," IZA Discussion Papers 11144, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kevin O’Neil & Marta Tienda, 2015. "Age at Immigration and the Incomes of Older Immigrants, 1994–2010," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(2), pages 291-302.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigrants; Social Security; retirement; wealth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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