The poverty risks faced by elderly immigrants in Europe: Assessing how European immigrants fare in their post-retirement years

Details

Supervisors

Vandenberghe, Vincent

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences économiques, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This paper focuses on the risk of poverty among elderly immigrants in Europe. With SILC survey data from nine European countries, we find that this risk is significantly higher compared to elderly natives. Using information on household size, we assess the (relative) propensity of old migrant retirees to mitigate that risk of poverty via living arrangements that are synonymous with economies of scale; e.g. living in larger households, possibly with their children. We find that this effect is only relevant for non-EU immigrants. In addition, we find that the time spent in the country, and thus presumably the young age upon arrival in the country, tends to reduce the old-age poverty gap among immigrants (i.e. is synonymous of assimilation). Finally, we find that more recent cohorts of non-EU migrants are slightly more exposed to the risk of old-age poverty.