Immigrants support the economy of aging societies in many ways. They pay into social pension programs, which finance the lives of retirees. Many of them work in the care industry and directly serve older people, which reduces nursing home needs on a community level.

Immigrants themselves also benefit economically from moving to a new country. At every education level, they typically enter the labour market with lower wages than native-born citizens do, but eventually catch up over time.

However, my recent study has revealed that things look completely different when it’s immigrants’ own turn to retire. Using decades of follow-up data, I found that immigrants’ income falls behind once they turn 50 and their disadvantage only gets worse as they continue to age.

A disadvantage that keeps growing